"I don't remember seeing her."
The girls looked at each other inquiringly.
"Don't you remember, Hope?"
"I didn't suppose you'd forget, Faith!" were their simultaneous
remarks, as each began to laugh.
"No," said Hope then, "I can't remember at all; but I know she was
looking at our rooms just the day before we sailed, and we thought her
very ladylike and pleasant. Don't you know how interested she seemed
in our voyage, and how we thought her an American, then recalled
afterwards that we had not found out whether she was or not?"
"Yes, it does come back to me," said Faith, and the talk drifted into
other home matters, not essential here.
The next day was more sultry than any they had yet experienced, and the
decks were filled with loungers. Hope and Bess, however, were deeply
occupied over some new stitch in embroidery, that one was teaching the
other, and Faith, who had been romping with the little ones till warm
and weary, thought, while resting in a deep steamer-chair by herself,
that she would give dear old Debby's letter a second reading. As she
drew it from her pocket for that purpose, and removed the envelope, a
little puff of wind caught the latter from her lap, and sent it lightly
skimming down the deck. Faith, quite unheeding, read on, smiling over
her nurse's peculiar spelling, and the envelope sped along its way
unchecked, an unconscious instrument of fate. As if heaven-directed,
it presently swerved a trifle from its first course, fluttered to and
fro an instant, then neared a woman, who sat listlessly by herself, her
arms resting upon those of her chair and her eyes, dark and sad,
fastened upon the far horizon.
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