After Edith Longworth left her, Jennie Brewster indulged in a brief spasm
of hysterics. Her common-sense, however, speedily came to her rescue;
and, as she became more calm, she began to wonder why she had not
assaulted the girl who had dared to imprison her. She dimly remembered
that she thought of a fierce onslaught at the time, and she also
recollected that her fear of the boat leaving during the struggle had
stayed her hand. But now that the boat had left she bitterly regretted
her inaction, and grieved unavailingly over the fact that she had
stopped to write the account of the disaster which befell the _Caloric_.
Had she not done so, all might have been well, but her great ambition to
be counted the best-newspaper woman in New York, and to show the editor
that she was equal to any emergency that might arise, had undone her.
While it would have been possible for her to send away one telegram, her
desire to write the second had resulted in her sending none at all.
Although she impugned her own conduct in language that one would not have
expected to have heard from the lips of a millionaire's daughter, her
anger against Edith Longworth became more intense, and a fierce desire
for revenge took possession of the fair correspondent. She resolved that
she would go up on deck and shame this woman before everybody. She would
attract public attention to the affair by tearing Edith Longworth from
her deck-chair, and in her present state of mind she had no doubt of her
strength to do it. With the yearning for vengeance fierce and strong upon
her, the newspaper woman put on her hat and departed for the deck. She
passed up one side and down the other, but her intended victim was not
visible. The rage of Miss Brewster increased when she did not find her
prey where she expected. She had a fear that, when she calmed down, a
different disposition would assert itself, and her revenge would be lost.
In going to and fro along the deck she met Kenyon and Fleming walking
together. Fleming had just that moment come up to Kenyon, who was quietly
pacing the deck alone, and, slapping him on the shoulder, asked him to
have a drink.
'It seems to me,' he said, 'that I never have had the pleasure of
offering you a drink since we came on board this ship. I want to drink
with everybody here, and especially now, when something has happened to
make it worth while.'
'I am very much obliged to you,' said John Kenyon coldly, 'but I never
drink with anybody.'
'What, never touch it at all? Not even beer?'
'Not even beer.'
'Well, I am astonished to hear that. I thought every Englishman drank
beer.'
'There is at least one Englishman who does not.'
'All right, then; no harm done, and no offence given, I hope. I may say,
however, that you miss a lot of fun in this world.'
'I suppose I miss a few headaches also.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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