A Happy Voyage

== A HAPPY VOYAGE ==
=== By A. T. QUILLER-COUCH. ===
Originally published in Short Stories 1899
The cottage that I have inhabited these six years looks down on the one quiet creek
in a harbor full of business. The vessels that enter beneath Battery Point move
up past the gray walls and green quay-doors of the port to the jetties where
their cargoes lie. All day long I can see them faring up and down past the
mouth of my creek ; and all the year round I listen to the sounds of them — the
dropping or lifting of anchors, the wh-h-ing ! of a siren-whistle cutting the
air like a twanged bow, the concertina that plays at night, the rush of the
clay cargo shot from the jetty into the lading ship. But all this is too far
remote to vex me. Only one vessel lies beneath my terrace ; and she has lain
there for a dozen years. After many voyages she was purchased by the Board of
Guardians in our district, dismasted, and anchored up here to serve as a
hospital ship in case the cholera visited us. She has never had a sick man on
board from that day to the present. But once upon a time three people spent a
very happy night on her deck, as you shall hear. She is called The Gleaner. 
I think I
was never so much annoyed in my life as on the day when Annie, my only servant,
gave me a month's "warning." That was four years ago ; and she gave
up cooking for me to marry a young watchmaker down at the town — sl youth of no
mark save for a curious distortion of the left eyebrow (due to much gazing
through a circular glass into the bowels of watches), a frantic assortment of
religious convictions, a habit of playing the fiddle in hours of ease, and an
absurd name — Tubal Cain Bonaday. I noticed that Annie softened it to
"Tubey." 
Of course I
tried to dissuade her, but my arguments were those of a wifeless man, and very
weak. She listened to them with much patience, and went off to buy her
wedding-frock. 
She was a
plain girl, without a scintilla of humor; and had just that sense of an omelet
that is vouchsafed to one woman in a generation. 
So she and
Tubal Cain were married at the end of the month, and disappeared on their
honeymoon, no one quite knew whither. They went on the last day of April. 
At
half-past eight in the evening of May 6 I had just finished my seventh
miserable dinner. My windows were open to the evening, and the scent of the
gorse-bushes below the terrace hung heavily underneath the veranda and stole
into the room where I sat before the white cloth, in the lamplight. I had taken
a cigarette and was reaching for the matchbox when I chanced to look up, and
paused to marvel at a singular beauty in the atmosphere outside. 
It seemed a
final atonement of sky and earth in one sheet of vivid blue. Of form I could
see nothing; the heavens, the waters of the creek below, the woods on the opposite
shore were simply indistinguishable — ^blotted out in this one color. If you
can recall certain advertisements of Mr. Reckitt, and can imagine one of these
transparent, with a soft light glowing behind it, you will be as near as I can
help you to guessing the exact color. And, but for a solitary star and the red
lamp of a steamer lying off the creek's mouth, this blue covered the whole
firmament and face of the earth. 
I lit my
cigarette and stepped out upon the veranda. In a minute or so a sound made me
return, fetch a cap from the hall, and descend the terrace softly. 
My feet
trod on bluebells and red robins, and now and then crushed the fragrance out of
a low-lying spike of gorse. I knew the flowers were there, though in this
curious light I could only see them by peering closely. At the foot of the
terrace I pulled up and leaned over the oak fence that guarded the abrupt drop
into the creek. 
There was a
light just underneath. It came from the deck of the hospital ship, and showed
me two figures standing there — z woman leaning against the bulwarks, and a man
beside her. The man" had a fiddle under his chin, and was playing Annie
Laurie, rather slowly and with a deal of sweetness. 
When the
melody ceased I craned still further over the oak fence and called down : 
"Tubal
Cain!" 
The pair
gave a start, and there was some whispering before the answer came up to me. 
"Is
that you, sir?" 
"To be
sure,'" said I. "What are you two about on board The Gleaner?" 
Some more
whispering followed, and then Tubal Cain spoke again: 
"It
doesn't matter now, sir. WeVe lived aboard her for a week, and to-night's the
end of our honeymooning. If 'tis no liberty, sir, Annie's wishful that you
should join us." 
Somehow,
the invitation, coming through this mysterious atmosphere, seemed at once
natural and happy. The fiddle began again as I stepped away from the fence and
went down to get my boat out. In three minutes I was afloat, and a stroke or
two brought me to the ship's ladder. Annie and Tubal Cain stood at the top to welcome
me. 
But if I
had felt no incongruity in paying this respectful visit to my ex-cook and her
lover, I own that her appearance made me stare. For, if you please, she was
dressed out like a lady, in a gown of pale blue satin trimmed with swansdown —
a low-necked gown, too, though she had flung a white shawl over her shoulders.
Imagine this and the flood of blue light around us, and you will hardly wonder
that, half-way up the ladder, I paused to take breath. Tubal Cain was dressed
as usual, and tucking his fiddle under his arm, led me up to shake hands with
his bride as if she were a queen. I cannot say if she blushed. Certainly she
received me with dignity; and then, inverting a bucket that lay on the deck,
seated herself ; while Tubal Cain and I sat down on the deck facing her, with
our backs against the bulwarks. 
"It's
just this, sir," explained the bridegroom, laying his fiddle across his
lap, and speaking as if in answer to a question ; "it's just this — by
trade you know me for a watchmaker, and for a Plymouth Brother by conviction.
All the week I'm bending over a counter, and every Sabbath-day I speak in
prayer-meeting what I hold, that life's a dull pilgrimage to a better world. If
you ask me, sir, to-night, I ought to say the same. But a man may break out for
once ; and when so well as on his honeymoon? For a week I've been a free
heathen; for a week I've been hiding here, living with the woman I love, in the
open air ; and night after night for a week Annie here has clothed hersqif like
a woman of fashion. Oh, my God I it has been a beautiful time — a happy,
beautiful time that ends to-night !" 
He set down
the fiddle, crooked up a knee and clasped his hands round it, looking at Annie.
"Annie,
girl, what is it that we believe till to-morrow morning? You believe — eh? —
that 'tis a rare world, full of delights, and with no ugliness in it?" 
Annie
nodded. 
"And
you love every soul — ^the painted woman in the streets no less than your own
mother?" 
Annie
nodded again. "Fd nurse 'em both if they were sick," she said. 
"One
Hke the other?" 
"No
difference." 
"And
there's nothing shames you?" Here he rose and took her hand. "You
wouldn't blush to kiss me before master here?" 
"Why
should I?" She gave him a sober kiss, and let her hand rest in his. 
I looked at
her. She was just as quiet as in the old days when she used to lay my table. It
was like gazing at a play. 
I should be
ashamed to repeat the nonsense that Tubal Cain thereupon began to talk; for it
was mere midsummer madness. But I smoked four pipes contentedly while the sound
of his voice continued, and am convinced that he never performed so well at
prayer-meeting. Down at the town I heard the church clock striking midnight,
and then one o'clock ; and was only aroused when the youth started up and grasped
his fiddle. 
"And
now, sir, if you would consent to one thing, 'twould make us very happy. You
can't play the violin, worse luck ; but you might take a step or two round the
deck with Annie, if I strike up a waltz- tune for you to move to." 
It was
ridiculous, but as he began to play I moved up to Annie, put my arm around her,
and we began to glide round and round on the deck. Her face was turned away
from mine, and looked over my shoulder ; if our eyes had met, I am convinced I
must have laughed or wept. It was half farce, half deadly earnest, and for me
as near to hysterics as a sane man can go. Tubal Cain, that inspired young
Plymouth Brother, was solemn as a judge. As for Annie, I would give a
considerable amount, at this moment, to know what she thought of it. But she
stepped very lightly and easily, and I am not sure I ever enjoyed a waltz so
much. The blue light — that bewitching, intoxicating blue light — paled on us
as we danced. The gray conquered it, and I felt that when we looked at each other
the whole absurdity would strike us, and I should never be able to face these
lovers again without a furious blush. As the day crept on, I stole a glance at
Tubal Cain. He was scraping away desperately — with his eyes shut. For us the
dance had become weariness, but we went on and on. We were afraid to halt. 
Suddenly a
string of the violin snapped. We stopped, and I saw Tubal Cain's hand pointing
eastward. A golden ripple came dancing down the creek, and, at the head of the
comber beyond, the sun"s edge was mounting. 
"Morning!"
said the bridegroom. 
"It's
all done," said Annie, holding out a hand to me, without looking up.
"And thank you, sir." 
"We
danced through the gray," I answered, and that was all I could find to
say, as I stepped towards the ladder. 
Half an
hour later as I looked out of window before geting into bed I saw in the
sunlight a boat moving down the creek towards the town. Tubal Cain was rowing
and Annie sat in the stern. She had changed her gown. 
They have
been just an ordinary couple ever since, and attend their chapel regularly.
Sometimes Annie comes over to make me an omelet ; and, as a matter of fact, she
is now in the kitchen. But not a word has ever been spoken between us about her
honeymoon. 
Category:ShortStories
Category:Quiller-Couch