CHAPTER XIX.
OLD TIES AND NEW.
The next two days were glowing, as to weather, and filled withintensest life. There were trunks to pack, loaned articles to hunt up,or return, neglected stitches to take, and a vast amount of friendlyvisiting to be crowded in.
On shipboard one fully appreciates the old adage that "Blessingsbrighten as they take their flight." Even the tiresome becomeinteresting when we feel we may never see them again, while thehobbies, or crankiness of the singular become entirely bearable, whenthey are about to be lost sight of forever. As death brings out thevirtues, and veils the defects, of our friends, so does the nearnessof, possibly, eternal separation produce the same effect, on shipboard.We love those who have become dear to us with an almost clingingtenderness, and we grow tolerant to affectionateness even of those notspecially agreeable.
Faith forgot that Dwight had sometimes been rude and Bess contrary;both girls now thoroughly realized that beneath her coolness andseeming superiority Lady Moreham carried a crushed and tender heart,and Hope knew that she should miss even Mrs. Windemere's pathetic,patient little voice.
As they finally steamed by the lighthouse, and fixed eager eyes uponthe city of their destination, many of these were dimmed with regretand sadness. Even Mrs. Campbell, who had been very quiet of late,looked sober as she leaned against the bulwark, handsomer than ever inher plain traveling suit of tan, and Carnegie, between Lady Moreham andFaith, felt his heart fail him as he thought of the lonely, busy lifebefore him for the next two years. And then? He turned to the girlwith a smile that concealed only partially the quiver of his lips.
"Do you know, it is just thirty days since I first saw you, and it isdifficult to believe that I have not known you always. I remember, youand Miss Hope were standing together, on deck, and I thought howmarvelously alike you were, but I have never once mistaken one for theother--never!"
She glanced up, half timidly.
"I remember you said you should know us apart, but when I told Hope,she thought she could deceive you at any time."
"Well, she knows better now!" he returned meaningly.
"Why? Did she ever try it?"
"Yes, once." He laughed enjoyably.
"She did. And she never told me!"
"Certainly not, for she failed entirely. I thought she would want tokeep it to herself, so I never betrayed her."
"That was nice of you, Mr. Carnegie!"
"Only commonly decent, it seems to me. And, you see, I have told now."
"Told what?" asked Hope, approaching, with something very like a scowlon her bright face. "I do wish, Faith, that you'd look better afterthat Andy of yours! I happened to drop my best veil within his reach,and before I could stop him he had torn it to shreds. Texas doesn'tact that way."
"You shall have mine," said Faith, promptly. "Poor Andy! I can't helpliking him all the more, because everybody is down on him. My veil isjust like yours, dear, so take it, and I'll go without. I don't caremuch for veils, anyhow, and we can be different in so little a thing asthat, I'm sure."
Hope gave her an odd look.
"If that was the only thing we are different in!" she said instantly."I'll never be so good as you, no matter how hard I try. And it's nomatter about the veil at all! Do you know, it is exactly a month sincewe left home? It seems years when I think of Debby and the oldschool-days, yet the hours have seemed to fly sometimes, too."
"That's the odd thing about voyaging," observed the Traveler, as hejoined them. "It sends our past out of our minds with its novelties,making it seem far away, yet there are few lagging hours, and Timenever stands still."
"Is that always true?" asked Lady Moreham, turning quickly. "I havenot found it so."
He looked at her with a kindly smile. It had become subtly understoodamong a few that this aristocratic lady had a past, and not a happypast.
"I think it as true as any general statement," he responded. "But Ican also understand that insistent memories could never take such astrong hold of one as during the enforced leisure of long trips byland, or water. It would be a severe punishment for the remorseful, tocondemn them to a voyage around the Horn in an old-fashioned sailingvessel. I think they would be ready for confession and hanging by thetime they landed! But there's compensation in every situation, and theunhappy traveler, while remembering too much, perhaps, will also learnto readjust himself, and so make the future easier. Reflection is agood thing only when it lights up the future as well as the past."
The lady smiled, with more lightness than was her wont, and let a handdrop gently upon the shoulder of the girl beside her. "With Faith toguide?" she asked; then, looking at the other sister, "And Hope tocheer?" Then, more seriously, "It is a good thought, but one that hasonly come to me lately."
A rattle of boyish feet, and Dwight was among them.
"Most there, aren't we?" he cried with boyish eagerness. Then, growingsober, "But what's the reason nice things always have a bad side, too?It's just horrid to have to leave you all! Why, I felt like cryingeven to say good-by to Quint, Huri, and Tegeloo."
"But you're not to start the good-byes up here yet," put in Carnegie,hurriedly. "We shall not really separate for a day or two, and there'sno use in prolonging the agony."
He spoke with feeling, and a glance passed between the elders.
A moment later, as the young people strolled onwards together, at thecall of Bess, to watch the state barge of some native prince as itsailed slowly by, its dusky crew shouting greetings. Lady Moreham,looking after them, said, slowly,
"How lovely youth is when it is lovely!"
"True, my lady, and there we see it at its best. Those girls arecharming, and it need surprise no one if these fine young fellows seekthem out, and hate to be separated. Carnegie seems of fine grain, andlittle Miss Faith is as modest as a violet. She is your favorite, Iimagine?"
"Oh, I would not say that! I find myself very much attracted to both,but there is something about Faith--a sympathy and tenderness,perhaps,--that is soothing when one's heart is sore. Hope iswonderfully entertaining, and brightens you up, but Faith seems tounderstand without telling, and somehow makes you feel happier--more atpeace with yourself. I wish they were both my own!"
He let his mild gaze rest upon her.
"Lady Moreham, I am not an inquisitive man, but several times I havebeen on the point of asking you a question." He could see that sheshrank, but continued obliviously, "Have you any kinsman by the name ofDuncan Glendower Moreham, from Kent, England?"
She turned with a gasp, white to the lips.
"Why?" she whispered with an effort, "Why?"
"Because," he returned, not looking at her, "I traveled and hunted withhim one whole season, two years ago. I sometimes exchange letters withhim, and have his address now. He seemed to me a restless, wretchedman, trying to drown some mental suffering in physical activity. Hegave no title with his name, and, like the rest of us, lived in themost absolute simplicity, but I noticed the crest on his linen, and insome books. I knew him to be an English peer."
With a visible effort the woman controlled herself.
"Yes," she said in a voice strange in her own ears, "Yes, I know him.Would--would you give me his address?"
He took out a card from his vest pocket, wrote a line or two, andhanded it to her in silence. As she read it her face grew almostradiant with surprised delight.
"_Here_?" she murmured. "So near?"
She seemed incapable of further speech, and, seeing it, the gentlemansaid quickly,
"You will pardon my officiousness. He is here in India, not many milesout from Bombay, and I shall see him very soon. Am I to mention you?I might--" he hesitated for the right words--"I could only say thepleasantest things of you, and the most general, but I am his friend,whom he claims to like and respect. If I am meddling with what is noneof my business--"
"No, no, you are all that is helpful and kind! Let me think--no, Iwon't think--I have thought t
oo much, and sometimes first impulses arebest. I will trust you fully. You have tact, you know the world. Ifeel that you have guessed out a great deal of what it is hard to bringmyself to talk about. But this much I will say--the man you mentionwas--no, is--my husband! For the rest, go to my good friend, thecaptain; he will tell you all. Good-by, and thank you from my heart!"
They clasped hands silently--the two strangers whose life-threads hadbeen permitted to cross, just now, for some divine purpose, then thewoman, stirred to the depths, went to her stateroom, and the man stoodstill for a time, looking out to sea. "Life is a wonder," he mused, "asuccession of surprises. When Duncan brought his men to the relief ofa stranger, set upon and nearly overwhelmed by an angry Chinese mob,that day in Muen Yan's district, he did not imagine what might come ofit to his own advantage. I felt, from the minute I heard LadyMoreham's name, that I had gotten hold of the other end of Duncan'smystery, and I have not watched her so closely for nothing, all thisvoyage. My misguided friend and his over-proud wife will meet morehappily than they parted, or I am much mistaken. I must wire him theminute I touch land."
Just down the deck the girls were laughing merrily, as Hope, teasedinto it by her sister, who was curious to know why she had failed inpersonating herself, told the story with keen enjoyment of her owndiscomfiture.
"It was away back," she began, "as much as three weeks ago, and Faithhad been real mean and shut herself up with a book. In fact, nobodyseemed real nice and ready for fun, and I couldn't find Dwight to planthings, so I sat moping on deck when I saw Mr. Carnegie coming along,looking almost as glum as I, and the thought crossed my mind that wemight mutually cheer each other--and then, like a flash, I determinedto pretend to be Faith. I looked up in a sweet, meek way with asmile--"
"Like this--" interpolated Carnegie, with a smirk that sent them allinto convulsions.
"I couldn't look like that if I tried!" indignantly. "And you mustn'tinterrupt."
"I was only illustrating. Picture stories always take better withchildren. But beg pardon! Go on."
"Humph! Well, he took my bait with alacrity," giving the young man adefiant look, "so I began to talk to him as soon as he had got settledin his chair. I asked him whether he preferred Longfellow, orTennyson," with a laughing glance at her discomfited sister, who had alittle weakness for displaying her knowledge of poetry. "I didn't darego into any of those other fellows, like--oh, Keats, say, or--or--wellany of 'em--but I knew about the 'Building of the Ship,' and there'slots of guessing about Browning anyhow, so I thought I might steerclear of snags, if I managed well. Mr. Carnegie seemed ready enough totalk about them both, but oh! what a dance he did lead me! He calledme Miss Faith, right enough, but when he asked me to repeat again, inthat charming manner I knew so well, those fine lines from Jean Ingelowthat I had given him yesterday, I began to tremble. He seemedastonished when I asked vaguely--'What lines?' and remarked that he hadnever supposed me forgetful before. Then he began talking about Ibsen,and I gave up. 'Oh! for goodness' sake, stop!' I cried, 'I'm not Faithat all.' 'I knew it,' he said calmly, 'and thought I could soon makeyou own up. Now, aren't you ashamed of yourself?' And I was!"
"And yet tried the same game on me!" commented Allyne in a low tone,but with reproachful emphasis.
She turned a laughing face upon him.
"Oh, no, that was different. You deceived yourself. Would you have mego about setting everybody straight?"
"Not at all. All I ask is that you will set me straight."
"Indeed!" cried Hope, "but that is asking a good deal."
All Aboard: A Story for Girls Page 19