ess? I don't
wonder he colored so."

Miss Keene winced with annoyance. Was everybody going crazy, or was
there anything more in this catastrophe that had only enfeebled the
minds of her countrywomen! For here was the severe, strong-minded Mrs.
Markham actually preoccupied, like Mrs. Brimmer, with utterly irrelevant
particulars, and apparently powerless to grasp the fact that they were
abandoned on a half hostile strand, and cut off by half a century from
the rest of the world.

"As to the letter," said Mrs. Markham, quietly, "there it is. There's
nothing in it that might not have been written by a friend."

Miss Keene took the letter. It was written in a delicate, almost
feminine hand. She could not help noticing that in one or two instances
corrections had been made and blots carefully removed with an eraser.

"Midnight, on the Excelsior.

"MY FRIEND: When you receive this I shall probably be once more on the
bosom of that mysterious and mighty element whose majesty has impressed
us, whose poetry we have loved, and whose moral lessons, I trust, have
not been entirely thrown away upon us. I go to the deliverance of one of
those oppressed nations whose history I have often recited to you,
and in whose destiny you have from time to time expressed a womanly
sympathy. While it is probable, therefore, that my MOTIVES may not be
misunderstood by you, or even other dear friends of the Excelsior, it is
by no means impossible that the celerity and unexpectedness of my ACTION
may not be perfectly appreciated by the careless mind, and may seem
to require some explanation. Let me then briefly say that the idea of
debarking your goods and chattels, and parting from your delightful
company at Todos Santos, only occurred to me on our unexpected--shall I
say PROVIDENTIAL?--arrival at that spot; and the necessity of expedition
forbade me either inviting your cooperation or soliciting your
confidence. Human intelligence is variously constituted--or, to use a
more homely phrase, 'many men have many minds'--and it is not impossible
that a premature disclosure of my plans might have jeopardized that
harmony which you know it has been my desire to promote. It was my
original intention to have landed you at Mazatlan, a place really
inferior in climate and natural attractions to Todo Santos, although,
perhaps, more easy of access and egress; but the presence of an American
steamer in the offing would have invested my enterprise with a c