parated us two forever.

Miss Lamarque and I sat down together on a bench, while the host of
hungry passengers crowded down to the cabin at the welcome summons of
the bell, and I was aware again of the pale widow and her patient child
standing near me.

A sudden thought occurred to me. This woman, more than any one among us,
needed the strengthening stimulus of good food, and this meal might be
her last on shipboard--on earth, perhaps--for a dull, low, ominous sound
began to make itself heard to my ear as soon as the murmur of the crowd
subsided.

"Trust me with your child again while you go down and eat your breakfast
in my place to-day. It is a whim of mine. I have had coffee with this
lady in her state-room, and shall not appear at the table. You may bring
me a slice of bread, if you choose, when you come back, and one for
baby. Do not refuse me this favor."

Much pleased at my attention, as I could see, she went to the grand
first table, with its high-heaped salvers of snowy rolls and biscuit,
its delicate birds and fowls, its fragrant coffee and tea, so different
from the dregs of the humble board at which her second-class ticket
alone entitled her to appear; and, to save her from possible
humiliation, I wrote a line to the steward; so she feasted, no doubt, in
state.

Again I enacted the _role_ of self-appointed nurse to a creature that
looked more like a fairy changeling than a flesh-and-blood creation.

"You are a strange woman, Miriam Harz! At such an hour as this, what
matters the quality of food?" said Miss Lamarque, sententiously. "After
all, what can that invalid and her child be to you in any case? They are
essentially common and mean. You never saw them before, and may never
see them again."

"In view of such a catastrophe as that before us, all distinctions fade,
Miss Lamarque. This is the last meal any one will take on the ship
Kosciusko--she is doomed! The woman might as well get strength for the
chance of saving herself and child. I doubt whether any second table
will be spread to-day!" I spoke with anguish.

"You cannot believe this! Why, after what the captain said, days may go
by before any real danger manifests itself! Ships must pass in the
interval--many ships may pass to-day, within a few hours, ready for our
relief, if needed; and see, the smoke has ceased to curl about your
broken main-mast! That shows convincingly that the fire is being gotten
under--extinguished, probably."

"Oh