isturbed
rest, and was unable to see me more than five minutes; so it was agreed
that we should remain at Havre until the next day. My brother-in-law,
who was anxious about his wife, was unwilling to leave her room; but
she insisted upon his going out with me to take a walk and recover his
landlegs. The early autumn day was warm and charming, and our stroll
through the bright-colored, busy streets of the old French seaport was
sufficiently entertaining. We walked along the sunny, noisy quays, and
then turned into a wide, pleasant street, which lay half in sun and
half in shade--a French provincial street, that looked like an old
water-color drawing: tall, gray, steep-roofed, red-gabled, many-storied
houses; green shutters on windows and old scroll-work above them;
flower-pots in balconies, and white-capped women in doorways. We walked
in the shade; all this stretched away on the sunny side of the street
and made a picture. We looked at it as we passed along; then, suddenly,
my brother-in-law stopped, pressing my arm and staring. I followed his
gaze and saw that we had paused just before coming to a _cafe_, where,
under an awning, several tables and chairs were disposed upon the
pavement The windows were open behind; half a dozen plants in tubs were
ranged beside the door; the pavement was besprinkled with clean bran.
It was a nice little, quiet, old-fashioned _cafe_; inside, in the
comparative dusk, I saw a stout, handsome woman, with pink ribbons in
her cap, perched up with a mirror behind her back, smiling at some one
who was out of sight. All this, however, I perceived afterwards; what I
first observed was a lady sitting alone, outside, at one of the little
marble-topped tables. My brother-in-law had stopped to look at her.
There was something on the little table, but she was leaning back
quietly, with her hands folded, looking down the street, away from us.
I saw her only in something less than profile; nevertheless, I instantly
felt that I had seen her before.

"The little lady of the steamer!" exclaimed my brother-in-law.

"Was she on your steamer?" I asked.

"From morning till night She was never sick. She used to sit perpetually
at the side of the vessel with her hands crossed that way, looking at
the eastward horizon."

"Are you going to speak to her?"

"I don't know her. I never made acquaintance with her. I was too seedy.
But I used to watch her and--I don't know why--to be interested in her.
She's a de