The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-18

l while upon the Italian monopoly that l had had him in it's grasp for a few weeks, failed to restore his usual equa-
 nmity or elevate him to proper ap- 1 preciation of his environment. The
 briefer twilight of the south had al
 ready given place to the deep blackness ! of night as he came up from dinner and l settled himself in a chair on deck. The | blinking lights of Naples outlined the 1 crescent of the shore, rising shadow l of Vesuvius, the stars Shone bright ana 1 big in the clear Italian sky, While the l tinkle of guitars and mandolins accom- panying the somewhat mechanical sing l Ing of Vedire Napoli fioated up from l scores of roWboats that surrounded the
 ship and suggested nothing more to him
 than the approaching passing of tat i tered hat. Stoddard would have been ] the first to reproach similar state of mind in another as a mere afRectatlon | of boredom.
 Then came a small crowd of Italians scaling the ships side and surrounding q young woman who, Is became evl- dent, was a departing passenger. An
 old gentleman with snow-white mus
 
 one arm, young naval officer in natty white uniform pressed a huge bunch of roses toward her, a devoted dozen of miscellaneous retainers WaXed increas-
 ingly eloquent in gesture-and in the
 midst of it all the little woman broke
 into a tempest of tears. Meanwhile the
 attendant party grew more and more
 solicitous and began to weep in synpa-
 thy in the ever ready fashion of the
 Latin race Lazily speculating as to
 their identity and several relationships,
 Stoddard watched them disappear be- low decks and determined that the med
 icine he needed was a long sleep, re- fiecting that the morning would see the
 ship we'll started on her way to Sgypt.
 Breakfast found him seated opposite
 the fearful lady of the night before, and
 mentally blessing his good fortune to have so pretty neighbor he passed the morning reviewing the passengers with
 the mild interest of an oll traveller while the ship steamed her way past the Lipari Islands, with the smoking cone of Stromboli standing sentinel to the west, and down between fab'el Scy.ia adn Charybdis. In the distance the huge bulk of Aetna, with it's ainy cap of smoke, recalled other old stories and sgnaled a final farewell to Europe, and Stoddard made pretense of dipI into his stock of recent Fr Arch fiction, while, III due course, the a2;laintance of hia Italian s-a-vis was accom-
 .tshed aS such tht tngs always are at sea.
 An. :hol sieur. when sat you with that rtvel in your hand I saii to my self, Mon Dieu, c'est lui, now I shall have at least one friend, for there's a man who speaks French she ioEenu uously contided to him afterward, for thc sunny Ia ian woman coG!o not speak word of English and had been dismayed at the prospect of finding no one to talk to on this English ship, whose British passengers, chiefly colo nials, with a fine disdain, refused a knowledge of any other tongue than their own.
 Propinquity is not the least of the several forces that go to assist in a mans falling in love, and if Lucia had found other friends with whom she could talk, it is more than likely that these records of a voyage to India would never have been written As it wsa, day after day saw Stoddard seat ed by the side of the big bamboo couch, which, in true tropical fashion, occupied much more than it's fair share of deck room and enthroned the slender figure | of a black and wayWard haired siren. whose dancing. gleaming eyes and | roguish smile attracted him more and | more. Evening after evening found | him promenading briskly by her side, | and, as their acquaintance grew more l intimate, stopping for ten minutes in | some far and dark corner, where she could puff contentedly half dozen times at her cigarette, out of sight of those cold English who are so easily | 
 Are you really married?" said Stod- dard one evening as they were waltzing 1 together to the very indifferent music of the ships orchestra, which always played on the first cabin deck after din- ner. 'T knew that you were, of course, from the first, else how should you be signora? And yet it seems so strange 8 slip of a girl like you-it must be a mistake!"
 "No, no, monsieur not at all, she re- piled with one of her puzzling smiles. I was married when I was-voyons- when I was seventeen I'm going out to join my husband now"
 Stoddard looked over the placid sur lace of the Mediterranean, lighted by he flashing electricity from open port holes, and instinctively dropped the small hand which he suddenly became he had still imprisoned in his own, although the dance was over and hey were standing together and apart rom the others in the cosy nook they often affected just back of the cap ain's cabin.
 The ship stopped for a day at Port Said and Stoddard firmly declined all invitations to explore the wickedness of hat notorious gateway to the Orient in ,rder to spend the day with Lucia in 8 lot drive and afterward a cool retreat O the latticed varandas of a hotel | where iced drinks most astonishing1y | pleasant were served, and they could watch the strange Arab figures go and ome and the black yelled women stop 1 md chat together Then came the pas age of the Suez canal, where the eye | ] ,azed listlessly out over interminable niles of desolate sandy desert, and af- CT that the Red sea with it's tortures :