An Unknown Lover Part 22

While one might have counted ten, Katrine stood, motionless, almost without breath, gazing deep into the strange man's eyes, then with the wrench of physical effort, she turned aside, and slipped her hand through Mrs Mannering's arm.

"Come! Let us go!"

They walked on. Vernon Keith on one side, Mrs Mannering on the other, large, gaunt, protective, her arm gripping the girl's hand to her grey alpaca side. Katrine loved her for that grip, but her mind was still engrossed in visualising the figure of a tall man, thin, yet broad, of a tanned face, and light grey eyes.

The glare from the sand seemed of a sudden to have become monstrous, unbearable. She felt a tired longing for the cool white deck.

"How soon can we go back? How long will those--sweeps--take over their work?"

"Not long," Vernon said. "They are incredibly quick. Three hours for a matter of eight or nine hundred tons. We will go to the hotel and get something to drink. Has the sun been too much for you? You look so suddenly tired."

Beneath her breath Mrs Mannering grunted disgust at the blindness of man. When the hotel was reached, and she and Katrine sat alone for a few minutes waiting the arrival of drinks, she looked at the girl with a kindly twinkle and said abruptly:

"No need to take it to heart, my dear. Your own fault! You were worth looking at, and he looked--that's all! A cat may look at a king."

Katrine smiled faintly.

"Yes--of course. Stupid of me. But there was something in his eyes that--startled! Did you ever have that curious feeling on meeting a stranger? Not recognition--it's more like expectation--as if he _mattered_!"

Mrs Mannering grunted again.

"I know a fool when I see him, and an honest man. I know when to be civil, or to give a wide berth. Common-sense, I call it; not curious at all. Rather a fine figure, that man! You'd make a good pair. I've been thinking, you know, he might be that friend who is coming on board... Eh, what?"

To her surprise Katrine violently resented the suggestion.

"Oh, _no_!" she cried loudly. "I am sure he is not. Captain Bedford will be quite different." A look almost of fear flitted over her face.

"I'm quite sure it was not he!"

Mrs Mannering shrugged her shoulders, "Well! have it your own way. If I were a pretty, unattached female, and was introduced to that man as my travelling companion, I should feel I was in for a good time! On the other hand, if you were a bride, my dear, I'd stick to you like glue, out of sympathy for the poor man waiting his turn..."

Katrine hesitated, fighting an impulse which prompted her to confide in this kind, shrewd woman, to confess the real object of her journey, and secure her help and counsel. The words trembled on her lip; another second and they would have found speech; then the door opened and Vernon Keith appeared, followed by a waiter bearing refreshments. The opportunity was past.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

On returning to the ship Katrine found several letters waiting, one of which bore Jim Blair's well-known writing. She tore it open immediately on reaching her cabin, and was disappointed to find it unusually short.

Excitement, restlessness, and an unusual press of business made it impossible, he explained, to write at length, the more so as he was pledged not to speak of the subject which lay nearest his heart. He hoped she had made some woman friend on board, who would look after her, as not even the best of men could do. Bedford would probably have to hurry off immediately on landing to bring up a company of men, but as Dorothea would explain, the agent in Bombay had been instructed to look after tickets, baggage, etc., and make every arrangement for the four days' journey. Could she not find some woman who would share the carriage for even part of the way? Her second letter, following hard on the heels of that memorable acceptance, had been perhaps a necessary corrective, but she could hardly expect it to be welcome! So far the letter was grave, commonplace, almost business-like, but at the end an effort had evidently been made to adopt a lighter tone. He referred to her examination paper, declared that a careful examination of ears having been made, by means of tape measure and mirror, he might be considered to have pa.s.sed with honours. As to the wife's little ways, his mode of procedure would in each case be the same,--"_Kiss the wife_!"

That evoked a smile, but despite the effort at brightness Katrine was conscious of the underlying depression, which the last sentence put into words. "Now that our meeting is so near, I am consumed with doubts.

Not of my own feelings--never think that, but of yours! Why should you care for me, Katrine? What is there about me to attract a girl like you? I kick myself for my boldness and self-confidence; but at least, dear, you shall not be worried. Be sure of that! No thought of me must interfere with what seems best for you, and your happiness. Keep that thought before you, dear, through all the hours which carry you across the sea, and find courage in it. No happiness can come to me, which leaves you empty or dissatisfied!"

Katrine folded the letter, replaced it in its envelope, and sat on the side of her bunk staring vacantly into s.p.a.ce. For the first time the reading of a letter from Jim had left behind a feeling of disappointment and jar. He had struck a wrong note, and one which awoke in her a feeling of resentment. Surely now, when she was actually on her way, he should have hidden his doubts and affected an even stronger confidence and determination. She had looked forward to the receipt of this letter, expecting to be cheered, a.s.sured; now she could have found it in her heart to wish that it had not arrived! Jim Blair, depressed and doubtful, was an unfamiliar figure, with which she had no a.s.sociation.

From the beginning of their correspondence it had been his a.s.surance, this breezy self-confidence, amounting almost to audacity, which had captured her imagination; now when she needed it most that a.s.surance had failed!

Katrine laid herself down and made a pretence of sleep, which fatigue presently turned into reality. She was awakened by the ringing of the first dinner bell, and lengthened out the process of dressing by a bath, and an elaborate re-arrangement of hair. She also displayed an unusual self-abnegation in the matter of the mirror, so that when the last gong rang, her toilette was still incomplete, and Mrs Mannering sailed off alone, clasping jet bracelets round bony wrists.

Even when she had the cabin to herself Katrine showed no anxiety to hurry. The plain truth was that she dreaded entering the saloon, and facing the meeting which lay ahead. Until that afternoon she had looked forward with eagerness to the arrival of Captain Bedford, whose society would disperse the feeling of loneliness which is never more acute than in the midst of a crowd. He was the Middletons' friend, Jim's friend; reported to be good, staid, steady-going; not too young, straight as a die, and a splendid soldier,--in short an elder-brother-sort-of-man, agreeably free from romance. They would meet, not as strangers, but with such a bond of common interests, such a certainty of future friendship, as would carry them in a bound past the initial stages of acquaintanceship. She had counted the hours until Port Said should be reached, and now! here she was sitting dawdling in her cabin, dreading to leave it, and face what lay ahead...

Could that be Captain Bedford--that man with the tanned face, whose personality among a crowd of strangers had a.s.serted itself with such magnetic force; whose eyes had held her own captive, against her struggling will? Surely it was but one chance to a hundred! There had been other men in that group, other men hanging about the hotel; tall, bronzed, soldier-like men by the dozen, any one of whom might even now be sitting in the place next to her own in the saloon, wondering, with a tepid curiosity, when Miss Beverley would appear!

It was stupid of Mrs Mannering to have suggested the possibility; not only stupid, but officious, as were also her after insinuations.

Katrine flushed, as she recalled her own momentary impulse at confession. Protection was not needed: even if Captain Bedford were different from what she had expected, she could deal with the situation without help from others; could see as little or as much of him as she desired.

She rose, with sudden determination, cast a last look in the gla.s.s, and walked resolutely towards the saloon. She was late, for the second course was already being cleared away, and a steady hum of conversation rose from the crowded tables. Katrine steered her way to her own seat at the far end of the great room, a graceful figure, with head held high, and flushed, frowning face. The diners followed her with their eyes, and commented among themselves.

"Fine girl--beautiful eyes! Holds herself well. Pretty, but too tempery for my taste... Pity she mixes herself up with that Vernon brute. Expect she's used to a Bohemian set. Beverley's sister, I'm told... Author fellow who married Grizel Dundas. Ever met her? The most fascinating little witch! Could smile the heart out of a stone wall. Might have married any one she liked, instead of chucking away a fortune for the sake of a scribbler..."

Katrine pursued her way unconscious of criticisms, which, if overheard, would have accentuated the "tempery" expression. Her heart was beating with unaccustomed quickness, she kept her eyes averted from her own empty seat, and--the seat beyond! Even at the moment of stopping she would not look, but a tall figure rose suddenly, hand shot out, a voice spoke, level and expressionless: "Miss Beverley, I believe!"

It was he! Once more Katrine met the gaze of grey eyes, curiously light in the brown face; once more felt the sudden, half-fearful thrill.

"Captain Bedford! I--I think I saw you on sh.o.r.e this afternoon."

"At the hydrant. Yes!" He seated himself after her. "I enjoyed your enjoyment. It's an amusing sight when one is new to the East. Has the voyage been pleasant so far?"

The words were p.r.o.nounced with an amount of hesitation which comforted Katrine, by their betrayal of the fact that the nervousness was not all on her side. She made a determined effort to regain composure, and talk in natural, easy fashion.

"Quite, thank you. My powers as a sailor are untried; there has been no excuse to feel ill. And I'm luxuriating in the heat. I may have too much of that soon... I hope you are better!"

"Quite fit, thanks. Have you made any friends on board?"

Katrine took note of the hasty dismissal of the health topic. It was no doubt a painful subject, and one which he was naturally anxious to forget. She turned her head with an involuntary scrutinising glance, and had an impression of a long, lean jaw, dun-coloured hair, and a line of eyebrow, unexpectedly dark. The whole effect was too thin and lined to look robust after the florid men at home, but was nevertheless instinct with force. Rea.s.sured she looked away, and attacked the food on her plate.

"I have spoken to three people. My room-mate for one--an elderly woman, rather a character. She is afflicted with a devouring curiosity which it amuses me to balk. Then she lets off steam by confiding in _me_! I know to a penny how much she has a year, and what her husband died of, and her son's virtues and failings, and her plans for the rest of her life... It's a bore sometimes, but she's kind! I'm beginning to like her. Then there are two men--" She felt, rather than saw, the deepening of interest, the slight turn of the head. "One sits at the next table.

Don't look now! Fair, handsome; by the girl in blue. He spoke to me the first day; introduced himself, and was rather--startlingly--frank!

He is evidently an experienced traveller who leaves nothing to chance.

He suggested that we should... What do you think he suggested?"

Their eyes met, hers with a laugh; his stern, with a kindling light which boded danger.

"I have no idea. I'd rather not guess."

"That we should arrange what he was pleased to call 'a steamship flirtation,' which consisted of an arrangement to spend practically the whole time together, growing increasingly sentimental during the voyage, but _only_ during the voyage! On landing we were to part with a 'Good-bye, pleased to have met you,' and mutually disappear into s.p.a.ce.--It was just a thoughtful arrangement for amus.e.m.e.nt _en route_, like providing oneself with an interesting book. I discovered on enquiry that he had already proposed the same arrangement to one or two other girls, so that I had not even the consolation of coming first. I refused with thanks, but judging by appearances the blue girl was more amiable. He has not spoken to me since."

Captain Bedford looked across the table with a set jaw. The subject of conversation was too much occupied with his neighbour to be conscious of that glance, but Katrine saw it, and mentally noted that this man's anger would be no light thing.

"I think," he said grimly, "it is a good thing you are no longer alone!"

Then, after a pause, he added a question. "And the other man?"

"Ah! I wonder. Perhaps you will think that is worse still. I _hope_ you won't!" Katrine was conscious of a moment of actual nervousness; she played with her knife and fork, waited until the conversation swelled to a louder pitch, and turning towards him spoke in a whisper.

"The other man is dying of consumption. He is also drunk every night in the card-room. No other woman will look at him. They cut me because I do. We are great friends."

Again their eyes met, but this time it was her turn to look grave, while he smiled a smile of unexpected sweetness.

"He was with you, I think, this afternoon beside that hydrant. I'm glad you are kind to him."

Katrine was conscious of a great relief. Her spirits rose; she straightened herself with an agreeable tingling of blood, caught a glance directed to her from afar, and divined, with a woman's content, that she was looking her best. She drew her breath in a soft, fluttering sigh.