 They look through an old photograph album, and her father reminisces about an ex-friend, Commander Nick Barry, who was best man at his wedding and who appears in a wedding photograph with the bride and groom.He regrets that he and Nick were never reconciled after the time when, as Nick's superior in the Navy, he felt unable to recommend him for promotion.Suddenly and quite unexpectedly, her father stares at her with a look of horror and disbelief on his face, collapses, and dies.