Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
Before breakfast I saw the stewardess and asked her to learn how Miss
Carney was and whether she would be at the table. She soon returned with
the information that the lady thought it best not to leave her room, and
that she wished me to procure her a list of the passengers. This I did,
marking the addresses of those who sat at our table, and scrawling a bit
of advice on the margin, recommending her to make her appearance on deck
during the forenoon as the sea was remarkably smooth.
After leaving the table I took a novel called "His Foster Sister," which
somebody told me had a reference to the Islands, and seeking my steamer
chair became absorbed in its contents.
In a short time Mr. Edgerly came along and dropped into my second chair
in a friendly way. He also had a book and it was some time before we
engaged in conversation beyond the customary greetings.
My first impression of Edgerly was decidedly favorable. He was
apparently a jolly sort of chap, ready for a joke or story and not
inclined to be a bore. We got along together famously until about eleven
o'clock, when Miss May came slowly up the companion way, with the
stewardess to assist her. Edgerly saw her before I did and sprang to
offer her his arm. As she looked into his face and detected that it was
that of a stranger, she drew back, but he reassured her in low tones.
"You must permit me to help you to your chair," he said, "which I have
just vacated. It's evident you cannot reach it without aid."
By this time I had arrived at her side and Miss May took my arm, leaning
very heavily upon it. I was surprised to find her so weak and as soon as
she was seated I asked if there was anything I could order to give her
strength.
"No," she replied, faintly. "I shall be better soon. Please wrap the rug
around me."
The stewardess had the rug on her arm and at my request placed it over
the lady's skirts, tucking in the ends about her feet. She wore her
cloak and a steamer cap, and seemed provided against the coolness of the
air, which was still marked.
When the stewardess had gone, and Edgerly also, for he disappeared at
once, I waited for Miss May to speak again, but she lay with closed eyes
so long that I grew uneasy.
"There is a doctor among the passengers," I said. "I think when you go
below, you had best let him see you. I am alarmed at your condition."
She raised herself and surveyed the decks in every direction. Then she
took a less recumbent position.
"Who is the man that came to me at the top of the stairs?" she asked, in
a whisper.
"His name is Edgerly and he is from Albany. I never saw him till
yesterday."
"He has called at the office of my last employer, and I am afraid he
recognized me. Did he say anything to intimate it?"
"No," I answered. "There is not one chance in a thousand that he
remembers you. I never in my life have looked closely enough at a
stenographer to know her if we met outside."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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