Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1902-05-30
A Singular Episode.



ter. below sky frescoed here and
there with little fantastic pearly
clouds, like docks of yagrant swans.
There We're not many passengers. and
none OF them | knew
But all seemed us gay as the wealth
er-all save her. She sat on deck. hay
ing chosea one of its rear wooden
benches.
Her dress was very simple; some
thing white cleaned at her throat, and
browns AMI blacks vested her slender
frame
She might have been five and TWEEN
ty, but You had to sean well the wan
delicacy OF her face before you quite
decided that suffering alone must have
made her seem older
Both dark-gloyed 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 glorlfied her face, and
they were infinitely pensive.
1t shot through my mind: How
many tears they must nave weptr'
They looked straight ahead, too, plain
ly seeing nothing of the jocund and
scintillant sea that fronted them.
wondered if other people would no
/ tce their hopeless and helpless gaze.
| Unconsciously and with 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, immoy-
able The fanltless weather continued.
There was no moon. but the starlight
shone almost vivid enough to mimic
one, and kept getting gllmpses OF her
liked, 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 Il vessel gives when 1t sails
through placid stretches of ocean, with
out memories of those desoated fea-
lures, that plaintless yet woe-begone
/ air.
1 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 Frenchman,
who gave me his name as Guijean, II
dapper little person, with forid cheeks,
big curvilinear mustaches and teeth
sparkling white.
/ He spoke English with great huency,
and could readily believe him when
he informed me that he had mastered
several other tongues.
"She Is evidently NEST 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, just
from those few words, that she WAS
now the object Of his sympathy, no less
than mine.
In rich intutive fash | felt more
that he, whoever he was. had a ma
ture amply receptive to compassion.
II 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 mcllowing
fruit from invisible boughs Frankly
| have grown To dislike our captain
very much he is Il man of hard, harsh
disposition; he is capable of cruel acts.
II 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 widely different type.
or him | 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 Mrs
Vcrschoyl. She has u cabin all to her
self, and neither he nor any one else
knows the faintest item concerning her
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 ne at about
O'Clock
Before 10, while sat with Il novel in
one OF the upper saloons. Guijean APP
peared ut my side. All the ruby had
slipped from his cheeks; all his galliard
jauntiness had gone; he still looked
like the Frenchman he was. and yet
like that most mournful of things n
Frenchman who has lost his gayety.
III is terrible" he stammered, lean
Ing down and brushing my cheek with
one still curve of his mustache. "Do
you--can YOU dream what that poor
woman has done to herselfr'