FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  
leanor near that dreadful island, Mr. Barnaby," was the admonition shouted across the widening gap of water. It was a quite unnecessary appeal, for Joyce, who was presently sitting with his wife in a sheltered quarter of the deck, had not the slightest interest in the smoking cone which was as yet a mere smudge upon the horizon. Eleanor, with one hand in Joyce's possession, at times watched it with a seemingly vast apathy until some ardent word from Joyce would draw her eyes back to his and she would lift to him a smile that was like a caress. The look of weariness and balked purpose that had once marked her expression had vanished. In the week since she had married Joyce she seemed to have grown younger and to be again standing on the very threshold of life with girlish eagerness. She hung on Joyce's every word, communing with him hour after hour, utterly content, indifferent to all the world about her. In the cabin that evening at dinner, when the two of them deigned to take polite cognizance of my existence, I announced to Joyce that I proposed to hug the island pretty close during the night. It would save considerable time. "Just as you like, Captain," Joyce replied, indifferently. "We may get a shower of ashes by doing so, if the wind should shift." I looked across the table at Mrs. Joyce. "But we shall reach Malduna that much sooner?" she queried. I nodded. "However, if you feel any uneasiness, I'll give the island a wide berth." I didn't like the idea of dragging her--the bride of a week--past that place with its unspeakable memories, if it should really distress her. Her eyes thanked me silently across the table. "It's very kind of you, but"--she chose her words with significant deliberation--"I haven't a fear in the world, Mr. Barnaby." Evening had fallen when we came up on deck. Joyce bethought himself of some cigars in his state-room and went back. For the moment I was alone with his wife by the rail, watching the stars beginning to prick through the darkening sky. The _Sylph_ was running smoothly, with the wind almost aft; the scud of water past her bows and the occasional creak of a block aloft were the only sounds audible in the silence that lay like a benediction upon the sea. "You may think it unfeeling of me," she began, quite abruptly, "but all this past trouble of mine, now that it is ended, I have completely dismissed. Already it begins to seem like a horrid dream. And as for that
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   >>  



Top keywords:
island
 

Barnaby

 

fallen

 

thanked

 

Evening

 
silently
 
deliberation
 

significant

 
distress
 

uneasiness


dragging

 

unspeakable

 
sooner
 

Malduna

 
queried
 

nodded

 
memories
 
However
 

darkening

 

unfeeling


abruptly

 

benediction

 

sounds

 

audible

 

silence

 

trouble

 

begins

 

horrid

 

Already

 

dismissed


completely

 
moment
 

watching

 

bethought

 

cigars

 
beginning
 

occasional

 
running
 

smoothly

 
announced

apathy
 

ardent

 
seemingly
 
possession
 

watched

 

expression

 
marked
 

vanished

 
married
 

purpose