Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
It was bliss enough for one day. Nothing but the purest thoughts
regarding her could enter my head now. She was to be my wife!
The next morning she arranged a pleasant way to pass the time. Our cabin
was very large and roomy, and she said she could go on with my "novel"
quite as well there as on shore. She made me recline on my berth, which
had no other above it, and dictation was therefore done entirely at my
ease. It was undoubtedly better for me to keep my mind actively
employed, and the task to which I set myself was a most agreeable one.
My darling recorded the lines I gave her, with rapidity, and made very
few audible comments that day, although it was evident from the
tell-tale expression of her mobile countenance that she was keenly alive
to each situation I detailed. The lines that seemed to affect her most
were those wherein I confessed the depth, the sincerity and the purity
of the love that had sprung up in my heart.
She could not complain that I was misrepresenting her own part in these
affairs, for I thought no alteration could improve a straightforward
statement of the real facts as they appeared to me. She winced a
little--I thought more about that afterwards--when I referred to seeing
Wesson in my stateroom on the Pretoria and again when I spoke of meeting
him in close converse with Edgerly in Barbados.
The nearest she came to a full stop was when I related the reasons I had
for believing Wesson stole the book from Eggert and was more than likely
the thief who had taken the jewels, but after a second her fingers flew
over the keys as usual.
The waters through which we were passing were smooth as any millpond. I
have never seen so calm a sea, and my tranquil mind sorted with it
perfectly. There was nothing that could add to my happiness. I believed
each revolution of the steamer's screw brought me nearer the goal of my
ambition, the possession of my lovely companion as my true and lawful
bride. In the meantime I was producing what I had no doubt would give me
a successful embarkation on the sea of literary fame, a voyage I had
long aspired to take.
During the three days the "Don" occupied in going from Greytown to
Kingston we accomplished much. Marjorie gasped several times when I came
to the chapter that detailed my entrance into Wesson's room and my
success in finding the packet containing the missing diamonds. As I told
of my interview with the rascal she grew as pale as chalk, but she did
not entirely stop her writing. At last we came to the time when the
"novel" itself was begun and she brightened enough to say that we were
walking now in our own tracks. But, at the bald revelation of the things
I had said to her when I lost my temper, and demanded back the very
clothes she wore, she protested.
"You are unjust to yourself to put that literally in your story," she
said, pleadingly. "Your readers will never feel the extent of your
provocation. It makes you appear a very detestable character."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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