it was beautiful weather; and noel, being a good sailor, spent much of his time on deck. wherever he went about the ship, his eyes continually sought mrs. dallas. her beauty and singular history interested him much. he also made a close study of the husband. so far he had not cared to avail himself of the opportunity of making their acquaintance, which he knew miller would gladly have given him.
on the afternoon of the second day out he looked up from his book, and found mr. and mrs. dallas seated near him. he was partly hid by a pile of rope, over which, however, it was easy to see them. he folded his paper noiselessly, and, leaning back, began to watch them furtively. as usual, they were silent. the man was smoking cigarettes one after another, and looking apathetically at the water. the woman’s eyes were on the water, too; but their expression was certainly not apathetic. noel had never been so puzzled to read a face. he was not only an artist, but also a very human-hearted man; and he longed to go beneath that lovely surface, and read the thoughts of this woman’s mind. now and then she turned a puzzled gaze upon her husband, who seemed completely unconscious of both it and her. once she spoke, and the strong accent in her painstaking english was fascinating to noel’s ears. she only inquired if her husband were comfortable and satisfied to stay here. when he answered affirmatively, she spoke again,—this time so low that noel caught only the last word, “robert.” it was pronounced in the french manner, and came from her lips very winningly.
“can’t you say robert?” said her husband, bluntly. “people will laugh at you if you talk like that.”
“i vill try,” she answered, and turned her eyes away across the water. noel fancied he saw them widen with tears for a moment; and he looked to see if her companion were watching her, but his whole attention was given to the cigarette he was rolling. in a few moments, at the man’s suggestion, they rose and walked away.
noel noticed that she looked at no one as she passed along on her husband’s arm; but he interpreted this to be not shyness nor self-consciousness, but rather a sort of instinct against giving any one that opportunity of looking into her heart through her eyes.
one morning a new mood came over noel, and he asked miller to introduce him. the latter complied with alacrity. noel had no sooner bowed his acknowledgments than he looked at mrs. dallas, and addressed her in the italian tongue. the light that came into her face at the familiar sounds made his heart quicken. they stood some time by the railing, the group of four,—miller talking in a desultory way to dallas, while noel spoke, in animated, if somewhat halting italian, to the young wife. there was quite a strong breeze blowing; and some dark ribbons, which tied her fur collar, fluttered and sounded on the air. she held to the rail with both little smooth-gloved hands; and her heavy cloth dress clung close about her, [pg 20]and was blown backward in strong, swaying folds. they talked of italy, where noel had once lived for a while, and of pictures, art, and music, for which she had an enthusiasm which made the subjects as interesting to noel as his greater knowledge made them to her. he found her a genuine girl in her feelings, and at once perceived her absolute inexperience of the world. her convent breeding came out frequently in a sort of quaint politeness of manner, and it provoked him a little to find that he was being treated with a sort of deference due to a superior in age or in experience. he felt himself aged indeed in comparison with her vibrating youth and the innocence of her simple little life, which, up to this point, had plainly been that of a child; and he dreaded to think how soon and how suddenly she might grow old. she seemed in a world of mystery now, as one who had utterly lost her bearings, and was too dazed to see where she was or what were the objects and influences that surrounded her. out of this shadow his presence seemed for the moment to have lifted her; and as he talked to her of these subjects, round which the whole ardor of her nature centred, she seemed a different creature. the restraint and severity disappeared from her manner, she forgot herself,—her recent self that was so strange to her,—and over and over again he looked far into the clear depths of her golden eyes.
more than once he glanced at dallas to see if he showed any disrelish of this talk, carried on in his presence in a foreign tongue; but he was evidently not concerned about it in the least. he smoked his eternal cigarettes, and answered in monosyllables the remarks that miller was making. he did not look bored, for that expression implies a capability of being interested; and that he seemed not to possess, at least so far as noel’s experience went, and miller’s confirmed it.
