"Where is this precious derelict, and what has happened to her?"
"She's in the pink saloon. Don't speak of it lightly. She's lost her
father, and has not a friend in the world. I knew she would find her way
to your heart. Shall we go and see her? The doctor's there now, I guess.
We'll have to get our orders."
He led the way to the cabin, and they went in. It was a beautiful room,
and his servants already had smothered it in flowers. A young Austrian
doctor from Ragusa was trying to give the head stewardess his
instructions, and failing as dismally. He turned with relief to
Gabrielle, whose German was pretty if not eloquent. The cabin was to be
kept as quiet as possible; the patient must be watched zealously in case
of sudden collapse. He understood that this was a case of shock, and
could know nothing until consciousness returned. His suggestion that a
nurse should be fetched from one of the military hospitals was refused
almost ungraciously by the English girl he so plainly admired. Gabrielle
would play the part herself. She had already removed her furs, and was
busy about the cabin where artistic fingers could do so much. It was
quite needless for the doctor to repeat his instructions as he was
prepared to; she dismissed both him and her host with a wave of the hand
which said "begone" as no tongue could have uttered the word.
It was nine o'clock at night before Faber saw her again. His dinghy had
gone across to the _Wanderer_ with a message explaining the
circumstances, but he himself remained on deck, waiting for news that
might be a new echo of this pitiful tragedy. But a few days ago he had
entered that beautiful place and discovered the little nomad whose life
now hung upon a thread. He had wished to bring happiness to her father
and herself, but had failed beyond repair. Money did not help him in the
wilds of Albania, nor could money buy one jot or tittle of content for
the child of the man he had discovered in the cavern. Had not he himself
paid for the journey to Ranovica--a whim which cost the life of a man to
whom he owed his very existence? And now the child was his legacy. He
stood at the taffrail wondering what unnameable secret she had carried
down from the hills.
Perhaps he remembered the multitude of women who had so suffered since
God Almighty created a battlefield; but understanding had never come in
that way hitherto. Little Maryska--he would have given a good deal of
his lavish fortune to have saved her life that night. His heart bounded
when Gabrielle came out of the cabin at last to bring him better news of
the invalid.
"She is conscious and would see you. I think you had better go down."
"Do you approve my going?"
She looked at him in a curious way.
"She has asked for you, Mr. Faber."
"Why, then, I'll go right now. Have you eaten that dinner yet?"
"As much as I want. I must go now and get my things from the yacht."
"But you'll come back, sure?"
"I think I must--there's no one else."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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