Part 57 (1/2)
”Absurd! what did he talk about, then?”
”Not about his journey, nor his stateroom, nor you, Josephine; but you know there are more things, and as interesting, in heaven and earth, to us both, strange as it may seem to you.”
”_Pardon!_ I had forgotten!”
”You won't hear again before the Persia is in, will you?”
”That will be in three weeks, will it not?”
”Yes; that will be after we are at Newport. To whose care do your letters come addressed?”
”Really, Mr. Wynkar, you are too kind. Your interest is so unexpected!”
”Let us all drink to his _bon voyage_,” said the captain, filling my gla.s.s.
”_Avec plaisir_,” cried Josephine, and Phil said heartily, as he poured her out a gla.s.s:
”Victor's a good fellow; he has my best wishes on land or sea.”
”And mine,” said Mr. Rutledge, very low.
Why was there a hush around the table as that toast was drunk? Why did a sort of shade creep over the careless mirth of the company? Not surely because they guessed that he whose health they drank was within hearing, almost, of their words, nor because they knew how fallen and how wretched he was; but because, perhaps unconsciously, the gloom on their host's face, and the misery on mine, damped for a moment their gaiety and confidence.
”The last day at Rutledge!” murmured Josephine, with a pretty sigh, as we left the dining-room. ”I cannot bear to think of it. I never had so happy a fortnight in my life. Shall any of us ever forget this visit?”
”It doesn't seem as if we'd been here a week,” said Ella, ”does it?”
”A week! It seems to me a year!” I exclaimed, involuntarily.
”That doesn't speak well for your enjoyment, at all events; Mr. Rutledge will never ask you to come again. Will you, Mr. Rutledge?”
”I am afraid, Miss Wynkar, that it will be out of my power to enjoy the honor of any one's society here for a long while to come. I am going abroad in the course of a month, and”----
”You, Mr. Rutledge!” exclaimed more than one voice, and Josephine's color suffered a shade of diminution.
”It is a sudden determination, is it not, sir?” asked Phil.
”No, I have been thinking of it for some weeks, but I have not till recently had much idea of the time I should start.”
”Mr. Rutledge does not look upon crossing the Atlantic for a few months, as any way more formidable than going to town for a night, he has been such a traveller,” said Mrs. Churchill, with admirable composure; but _I_ knew the effort that it cost her. ”You do not think of being absent long, I suppose?”
”It is uncertain; I shall make my arrangements to be gone for about two years, but something may occur to detain me longer, in which case I can easily settle all things here by letter. I have trusty persons in my employ, and I think there is no chance of my presence being necessary at home for a long while to come.”
”I envy you,” said Ellerton; ”I wish I could run off for a year or two.”
I saw Josephine's lips move, but she could not command her voice, and, bending down, she caressed Tigre with a nervous hand. I could not but pity her; I had not realized before how much her heart had been set upon this match; and wounded pride is next in sting to wounded love.
The gentlemen lit their cigars, and talked of Mr. Rutledge's plans; we all lounged idly about the north end of the hall; the doors were all open, and a fine fresh breeze came in. I had been listening anxiously to a faint sound overhead, _where_ I knew too well; a hasty stride from one end to the other of the room above us.
”Hark!” cried Grace, ”what's that? I heard the same sound this morning.”
Every one stopped talking, and listened.