Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1902-05-24
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E A Singular Episode. s


theIe WITH little faDtaSLc pedTly
clouds, like flocks of vagrant swans.
There were 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 glorfed her face and
they were infinitely pensive.
1t shot through my mind: How
many tears they must have 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 i'll 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 l hear the peculiar
harmonious kissing and rushing sound
which 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 a GER
tain table companion. and had told him
of how this lady's evident misery had
touched me. He was a Frenchman.
who gave me ,his. name as Guiiean,
dapper little persdtl with florid cheeks.
big curvilinear mustaches and teeth
sparkling white.
He spoke English with great fuency,
and l could readily believe him when
he Informed me that he had mastered
several other tongues.
"She is evidently a most unhappy
woman" he had told me. after having
glanced, during the afternoon at this
forlorn object of my sudden and acute
sympathy.
/ Something in his tone made me start
and clasp his arm. | felt certain. lust
from those few words. that she was
now the object of his sympathy, no less
than mine.
! In rich, intuitive 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, who
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 mellowing
fruit from invisible boughS. FRANKLY.
have grown to dislike our captain
/ very much; he is man of hard, harsh
disposition; he is capable of cruel acts.
! Il know that on this same ship he
] has committed several which have
made him unpopular both among his
/ fellow officials and the common sailors
/ beside. But the second officer. Mr..
! Gladwyn, is of a widely different type.
Of him l 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, that
she has registered simply as a Mrs.
Verschoyl. She has a cabin all to her
/ self, and neither he nor any one else
knows the faintest item concerning her.
1 As we have observed, she has not yet
| appeared in the dining room, and since
her retirement into lower quarters she
has given no order whatever to any of
/ the servants"
/ This information reached me at about
| 8 o'clock
Before 10, while sat with novel in
one of the upper saloons, Guijean APP
peared at my side. All the ruby had
slipped from his cheeks; all his galliard
jauntiness had gone; he still looked