Part 33 (1/2)
The others were all filled
He cast a careless glance over the brilliantly lighted saloon, with its sparkle of plate and glass and coloured fruit, and vari-hued dinner-dresses There were a great ood cohbourhood did not look interesting
In silence he began his dinner, for he felt depressed It seemed but yesterday that he was seated exactly as he was now, yetof a tireat experience And noas leaving this land, whither he had co it for ever; hihted it A hand dropped on his shoulder, and his lad we're to have the voyage hoether, and it has come about sooner than either of us expected” And Captain Cheyne, resplendent in gold lace and shi+ning buttons, slid into his seat at the head of the table They hadin the bustle of hauling out, but had had no tied it so, when I saw that you had got this shi+p I say, though,” looking around ”She's a cut above the old _Siberian_, both in size and fittings, eh?”
”She is Well, and how have you been getting on? Been at that place-- er--er--I forgot the name--that none of us knehere to find, ever since?”
”No I've just coold-fields, so called, presurims' leave there the _rest_ of whatever they took with thehed at this, and the conversation becaeneral But Roden dropped out of it Mechanically, he took up the wine-list, and began studying it While thus engaged he heard the rustle of skirts The occupant of the e herself
Even then, so utterly without interest in her identity was he, that he did not ily late, I', and time ran on”
Then he did look up, and that sharply The whole rooo round, yet outwardly he was as composed and imperturbable of feature as ever he had been in his life But even to hiht a powerful shock For, in the occupant of the hitherto vacant chair, he found himself, thus suddenly, unexpectedly, marvellously, face to face with Mona Ridsdale
Her apologetic rely ht sight of hiitation, but was bravely self-possessed The quickened heave of the full, beautiful bosom, as revealed by the low-cut dinner-dress, and the wide, appealing dilation of the clear, hazel eyes, were read in all their significance by one; but to the rest they ht be due to a not unnatural flurry, consequent on her late appearance
Then both heard, as a far-away,them to each other
This was a happy solution In their present state of n that they were previously acquainted, could not fail to afford some indication of the nature of that acquaintance; and ood of Mona At any rate, it would draw attention to the surprise was the very last thing they desired But luckily, the conversation, once it had becoeneral, did not drop; thethe captain question after question of the usual type, varying between the mildly idiotic, and the hopelessly, frantically insane, such as whether he had ever seen so ers not sea-sick before; or, if they would reach Ply three weeks distant--or whether a shi+p like the _Scythian_ would sink at once, if rammed by a sword-fish, or would allow them sufficient time to take to the boats
All of which caused the captain to nudge Roden under the table, while his bronzed and handsoned, hopeless patience
”Rerave?” he said, as soon as he could conversationally break away ”We'll do a first one again now,” as the steward deftly popped the cork of a chane bottle ”What do you think, Miss Ridsdale? When we dropped anchor in the bay he found himself appointed to some place up-country He bet me a bottle of this stuff I couldn't tell hie, I couldn't The best of the joke was, _we_ could hardly find any one who did know What was the narave?”
”Doppersdorp”
”Doppersdorp Of course it was We passed the word, 'Where's Doppersdorp?' and hanged if any one knew Well, I suppose you found it at last?”
”Oh yes”
”Did you go to the gold-fields from there?”
”No, I put in about a month at a place called Barabastadt, with my old friends the Van Stolzes He's RM up there now”
”Van Stolz? I know him,” said the captain ”He used to be in the Custoo He was only there a little while though A thick-set, brisk, jolly little man, isn't he?”
”Yes That's hih he's a Dutchman”
”Good sort of chap!” echoed Roden ”I should rather say he was He's a rare specimen in this world, I can tell you One who once a man's friend remains so for life”
Mona bent down over her plate to hide the sudden rush which welled to her eyes He was too cruel The tone--light, easy, cynical--conveyed no specialto the other listener But to her--ah! she felt the full force of its lash During the foregoing, the other passengers had fallen into their own conversation, leaving this to the trio who are our special acquaintances But if Roden edged his words with a bitter sting, discernible only to the ears of the one who knehat lay behind them, it was that he felt bitter at that moment--cruelly, remorselessly bitter Why had she thus risen up before hi mockery of that utterly hollow past? There she sat, in all the bewildering beauty of her splendid forrace and seductiveness; she who had so passionately, so fervidly vowed herself his--his for ever in life and in death There she sat, only the width of the narrow table between theulf a thousand miles in breadth divided them For she had fallen away from him in the hour of trial, and his faith in her was killed 'For ever in life and in death!' had been the hollow ringing vow 'In death?' Ah! that hostly presentie of a shadow, as he sat there satiating his eyes with this vision of ae his share or the conversation