two o'clock
They were having now an ideal voyage , so far as wind and weather were concerned , but the Señoritas de la Cruz declared it the stupidest they 'd ever known , and the officers -- _ los Americanos _ -- the least attentive or attractive of those with whom they had ever sailed . And everybody seemed to long for the sight of the green headlands of the Golden Gate and the terraced slopes of San Francisco -- all save two ; Pancha , to whom the ending of that voyage meant the ending of the sweetest days her life had ever known , and the beginning of a school drudgery she dreaded , and Loring , to whom the return to San Francisco meant the taking up anew of a tangled case that had become hateful to him , to whom there was the prospect of a meeting that he would gladly avoid , to whom there was coming an inevitable parting , the thought of which oppressed him strangely , and he could not yet tell why . The marvelous green of the California bluffs spanned the horizon for miles on their starboard hand one radiant afternoon as they went below to the captain 's dinner , the last before reaching port . The sunshine had been brilliant all the day , yet there came a chilly , shivering air toward two o'clock , and the first officer shrugged his shoulders and looked dubiously ahead , but gave no other sign . Gaily they drank the skipper 's health and pledged the Idaho in her best champagne . Long they lingered over the table and laughter , jest and song and story enlivened the hours that came to an end at last , and Pancha stole her little hand within Loring 's arm for the last starlight walk along the now familiar decks , and lo , when they issued from the brightly-lighted saloon the stars were gone , the steamer was forging ahead through a chill mist that grew thicker with every moment , and as half-speed was ordered and the mournful notes of the whistle groaned out throbbingly over the leaden sea , she swayed uneasily over a heavy ground swell that careened her deeper and deeper as the mist thickened to fog , and oilskins and sou ` westers came out and dark figures went dripping about the decks , and Loring fetched his uniform cape from below and muffled in it Pancha 's slender form , and for awhile they tottered up and down , then abandoned the attempt to walk , and settled in their chairs at the end of the bench , just where she had sat and clung to the white stanchion and sobbed her heart out that night in Guaymas Bay . _ Ay de mi _ -- Pancha could have sobbed almost as hard , though no longer in loneliness and desolation -- this very night .