was gone, the
woman's arms dropped away from me; but when I turned to speak to her,
she, too, had gone.

I awoke.

Two stewards were talking in the passage, and one was saying, "She'll
get under way by daybreak, and it will be a race with the 'Porcupine' to
Aden. How the engines are kicking below!"

CHAPTER VI. MUMMERS ALL

The next day was beautiful, if not enjoyable. Stirring preparations
were being made for the ball. Boyd Madras was transferred to a cabin far
forward, but he did not appear at any meal in the saloon, or on deck.
In the morning I was busy in the dispensary. While I was there, Justine
Caron came to get some medicine that I had before given her. Her hand
was now nearly well. Justine had nerves, and it appeared to me that
her efforts to please her mistress, and her occasional failures, were
wearing her unduly. I said to her: "You have been worried, Miss Caron?"

"Oh, no, Doctor," she quickly replied.

I looked at her a little sceptically, and she said at last: "Well,
perhaps a little. You see, madame did not sleep well last night, and I
read to her. It was a little difficult, and there was not much choice of
books."

"What did you read?" I asked mechanically, as I prepared her medicine.

"Oh, some French novel first--De Maupassant's; but madame said he was
impertinent--that he made women fools and men devils. Then I tried some
modern English tales, but she said they were silly. I knew not what to
do. But there was Shakespeare. I read Antony and Cleopatra, and she said
that the play was grand, but the people were foolish except when they
died--their deaths were magnificent. Madame is a great critic; she is
very clever."

"Yes, yes, I know that; but when did she fall asleep?"

"About four o'clock in the morning. I was glad, because she is very
beautiful when she has much sleep."

"And you--does not sleep concern you in this matter of madame?"

"For me," she said, looking away, "it is no matter. I have no beauty.
Besides, I am madame's servant,"--she blushed slightly at this,"--and
she is generous with money."

"Yes, and you like money so much?"

Her eyes flashed a little defiantly as she looked me in the face. "It is
everything to me."

She paused as if to see the effect upon me, or to get an artificial
(I knew it was artificial) strength to go on, then she added: "I love
money. I work for it; I would bear all for it--all that a woman could
bear. I--" But here she paused again, an