The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1902-05-23

Slipping along through silky blue wa
ter. below sky frescoed here and
there with little fantastic pearly
clouds. like iocks of vagrant swans.
There We're not many passengers. and
none of them | knew.
But all seemed as gay as the wealth
er-all save her. She sat on deck. hav-
ing chosen one of its rear wooden
benches.
Her dress was very simple; some
thing white cleaned at her throat, and
browns and blacks vested her slender
frame.
She might have been five and TWEEN
ty, but you had to scan well the wan
delicacy of her face before you quite
decided that suffering alone must have
made her seem older
Both dark-gloved hands rested in her
lap. She appeared perfectly needless
OF everything about her.
She had the most beautiful eyes
have ever seen-large and gray and
fathomless; they glOrified her face, and
they were infinitely pensive.
1t shot through my mind: How
many tears they must nave wept"
They looked straight ahead. too, plain
ly seeing nothing of the jOcund and
scintillant sea that frOnted them.
| wondered if other people would no
tice their hopeless and helpless gaze
Unconsciously and with a simplicity
that pierced my soul she appealed to
me in terms of absolute despair
Every line of her figure, too, accord
ed, by some mysterious sympathy. with
this rapid impression of her wretched-
ness.
Till nightfall she sat there, immov-
able. The faultless weather continued.
There was no moon, but the starlight
shone almost vivid enough to mimic
one, and kept getting glimpses of her
fixed, cOlorless face, which now haunt
ed me more and more
Often since that night | have been at
sea, and never do | hear the peculiar
harmonious kissing and rushing sound
which a vessel gives when 1t sails
through placid stretches of ocean. with
out memories of those deSolated fea-
lures, that plaintless yet woe-begone
air.
Meanwhile had got to know Ger
tain table companion, and had told him
of how this lady's evident misery had
touched me. He was Frenchman.
who gave me his name as Guijean. a
dapper little person, with florid cheeks
big curvilinear mustaches and teeth
sparkling white.
He spoke English with great fiuency
and l could readily believe him when
he informed me that he had mastered
several other tongues.
'She is evidently most unhappy
woman" he had told me. after having
glanced, during the afternoon, at this
forlorn object of my sudden and acut,
sympathy.
Something I'm his tone made me start
and clasp his arm. l felt certain, just
from those few words. that she was
How the object of his sympathy, no Less
than mine.
In a rich, intutive flash | felt more
that he, whoever he was. had a ma
ture amply receptive to compassion
Il have crossed before on this line,
he said, after the tragic stranger, whC
now equally concerned us both. had de
parted from her shadowy lodge below
the huge smOkestacks and their con
cOmitant masses of iron equipment
and while the bland marine June stars
seemed to drop lower like mellowinl
fruit from invisible boughs. Frankly
l have grown to dislike our captain
very much; he is man of hard, harsl
disposition; he is capable of cruel acts
Il know that on this same ship h,
has committed several which 'hav,
made him unpopular both among hi
fellow officials and the common sailors
beside But the second officer. Mr.
Gladwyn, is of widely different type
OF him I will make certain inquiries
and join you later"
And later that same evening. Mon
sieur Guijean did join me, in the smok
ing room.
"Gladwyn tells me-" he said. tina
she has registered simply as a Mrs
VerschOyl. She has a cabin all to her
self, and neither he nor any one els,
knows the faintest item concerning her
AS we have observed. she has not We
appeared in the dining room, and since
her retirement into lower quarters sh'
has given no order whatever to any o
the servants"
This information reached me at abOu
8 o'clock
Before 10. while sat with novel il
| one of the nnner snlOonS Gniienn an