The lesser stars fled at the slow approach of the moon, and in an hour she floated alone in the sky, save for the larger planets, Hooding the deep abysses of the night with a gleam of silver, tender and caressing that softened the angles and blotted details in brooding shadows.
Overhead curved the arch of night, a deep, flawless blue with velvety depths, pale and diluted with light as it touched the skyline.

On the right, in the farther distance, Circular Quay flashed with the gleam of electric arcs, each contracted into a star of four points.

And they glittered on the waterline like clustered gems without visible setting.
A fainter glow marked the packed suburbs of the east; and then the lamps, flung like jewels in the night, picked out the line of shore to Rose Bay and the Heads.
Ferry-boats were crossing the harbour, jewelled and glittering with electric bulbs, moving in the distance without visible effort with the motion of swans, the throb of engines and the swirl of water lost in the distance.

It was a symphony in light, each detached gleam on the sombre shore hanging Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear.
Between the moon and the eye the water lay like a sheet of frosted glass; elsewhere the water rippled without life or colour, treacherous and menacing in the night.
Jonah turned and looked at the woman beside him.

They were alone on the rocky headland, the city and the world of men seemed remote and unreal, cut off by the silvery light and the brooding shadows.