The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-21
(Chapter W
"TO BE OR NOT TO BE?"

10 BE Oh NOI ~ BEIf'
"Tbe captain told me just now that if
this wind holds steady throughout the
night, Sydney Heads ought to be heav-
ingsinto view sometime duringlthe. course
OF Tomorrow"
This was the piece of news which
Marian Marston had to give Charles
Rawlings when she Joined him on deck
one evening after dinner. 1t was glori-
ously fEnenight, the sky of stars glimmer-
ing down to the very confines of the
armament, with silver pairing of moon
floating like a luminous gondola low down
near the sea line. The soft wind rolled in
a pleasant song of many melodies out OF
the dark arching sails, and the long hull
of the ship rose and fell with soothing
rhythm upon the placidly heaving folds
of the Pacific swell, with refreshing
sound of passing waters rising from
alongside to denote that the impulse of
her shadowy heights Of canvas was urg-
ing her forward a6 a goodly speed. The
poop deck was full of fitting figures,
promenading the yale planks from the
wheel TO the forward rail, and the air was
resonan with the drowning of their
voices, and now and again the sound Of a
clear low laugh.
Tomorrow! said Rawlings, bring
ing his eyes away from contemplation of
the black sea to the pallid countenance Of
the girl at his side.
She was silent moment or two, and
then exclaimed, "Shall we walk? It is
truly most glorious night.
He gave her his arm. and they fell to
peram bulating the deck, keeping to the
ed.
sit is glorious night said he, gazing
up. Would that the voyage could be
prolonged indefinitely if these halcyon
times would but continue. And SO to-
morrow we are to part, Marion!"
mot to part, Charlie, she exclaimed,
and he felt her arm tighten upon his own
whilst a convulsive sigh escaped her.
mo; not to part he repeated. 81
was wrong-not to part. But what
mean to say is that we shall ~ longer be
together as constantly as we have been
whist on board this ship. y
'ABut we shall both be in Sydney"
''Oh yes. Several gentlemen on board
have invited me to come and stay with
cover who | am-whO | ami he echoed,
with little mirthless laugh.
"And have you settled upon any plans
as to what you will do when you get on
shore?"
Eyes; have accepted the invitation of
Mr.. Hartree to go and stop with him.
My real reason i'll choosing his house out
of the three or four whose hospitality has
been offered to me Is that / shall be near
you-he lives out at clearinghouse, and /
think you told me your aunt's place was
in that suburb?''
Eyes, my aunt's cottage is at Darling
hurst
:. : "To me, of course, these names are
mere unsuggestiye sounds" said he,
moodily.
But you are no worse off in that re-
spect than L arr. Consider, how is it
possible to know place which one has
never before visited?'
True said he. You are sensible
little woman, Marion" And strange as
it may appear, this very obvious remark
of hers yielded him quite q little feeling
of comfort. His singular condition OF
being without memory had come to cause
him to think of himself as quite outside
the pale of other peoples experiences,
and to long for that sympathy which ali
sufferers derive out Of the discovery that
they are not alone in their misfortunes.
Therefore, unintelligible and even absurd
as it may appear to those who cannot ap-
preciate SO curious phase Of the mind,
it was positive source of relief and sat
isfaction to the poor fellow to reflect that
there existed countless conditions and
situations in which others were no better
off than himself, for all their possession
Of the mennonite faculty. Fallacious
reasoning, if you will, and like, in its
way, to those little revelations which
come to ailing children on hearing their
symptoms and sensations accurately de-
fined, when they cannot communicate
their own sufferings, nor conceive that
similar affections ever before visited any
other human being. AS scarcely defnable
as perception, was that whose working
in the darkened brain Of poor Charles
Rawlings could render him actually ex-
Ultant at the thought that after all there
were things of which his fellow creatures
were ignorant as well as himself
Marion" said he, suddenly pausing
in his walk and gazing earnestly at her
in the starshine.
"Well, Charlie" she answered, family,
whilst her heart started to beat tumultu-