e fell
suddenly.

"What is it, dear?" asked Lady Victoria affectionately, as she noticed
her companion's distressed look.

"Nothing--I suppose I ought not to be anxious. The steamer is delayed,
that is all," and she gave the English girl her brother's note.

"Oh, if it had been anything serious he would have sat up for us. It
will probably be in in the afternoon instead of in the morning." But
Margaret's eyes were heavy and her gladness was gone from her.

"Do you ever have presentiments?" she asked, as they separated half an
hour later.

"Never," answered Lady Victoria cheerily, "and if I ever do they never
come true."

"I do," said Margaret, "I have a feeling that I shall never see him
again." Poor Countess! She looked very miserable, with her white face
and weary eyes.

Early the next morning Lady Victoria told her brother what had been the
effect of his note. He was very angry with himself for not having put it
into better shape, and he determined to repair his error by devoting
himself entirely to watching for the steamer. With this object, he went
down to the Cunard office and established himself with a novel and a box
of cigarettes, to pass the day. He refused to move, and sent out in the
afternoon for something to eat. The people in the office did not know
him, and he felt free to be as Bohemian as he pleased. Once in the
course of the day he was told that a French steamer had come in and had
met with very heavy weather, losing a boat or two. It was possible, they
said, that the Cunarder, which had sailed on the day following this
vessel's departure, though from a nearer point, might be delayed another
twenty-four hours. For his part, he felt no fear of the safe arrival of
the ship, in due time. The odds are a thousand to one that a company
which has never lost a vessel at sea will not lose any particular one
you name. Nevertheless, he arranged to be called up in the night, if her
lights were sighted, and he returned somewhat disconsolately to the
hotel. Again he bethought him that if he told the Countess he had passed
the day in the steamer office she would overrate his anxiety and so
increase her own.

Margaret was really very unreasonable. There was not the slightest doubt
that the steamer was safe, but she had become possessed, as Lady
Victoria expressed it, by this unaccountable presentiment, that her
fair-haired lover was gone from her for ever. Hideous things came up
before her, poor drowned fa