"Yes; come on deck," said Gerald hoa.r.s.ely.
All that day he was silent, sitting mostly apart and by himself.
But the captain had his eye on him. In the evening he came again to Captain Jellyby.
"You touch at Plymouth, don"t you?"
"Sometimes."
"This voyage, I mean."
"No."
"I wish you to stop at Plymouth."
"Look here, my lad. "No" is the only word I can give you. We don"t touch land till we get to Teneriffe. Go and lie down and have a sleep.
We shall have a calm sea to-night, and you look f.a.gged out."
"Are you a man to be bribed?" began Wyndham.
"I am ashamed of you. I am not."
The captain turned his back on him. Wyndham caught him by his shoulder.
"Are you a man to be moved to pity?"
"Look here, my lad, I can pity to any extent; but if you think any amount of compa.s.sion will turn me from my duty, you"re in the wrong box. It"s my duty, clear as the sky above, to go straight on to Teneriffe, and on I shall go. You understand?"
"Yes," said Gerald, "I understand. Thank you, captain, I won"t bother you further."
His voice had altered, his brow had cleared. He walked away to the further end of the deck, whistling a light air. The captain saw him stop to pay some small attention to a lady pa.s.senger.
"Bless me, if I understand the fellow!" he muttered.
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
When a die has been cast--cast irrevocably--as a rule there follows a calm. It is sometimes the calm of peace, sometimes that of despair; but there is always a stillness, effort is over, words don"t avail, actions are paralyzed.
Gerald Wyndham sat on deck most of that evening. There was a married lady, a certain Mrs. Harvey, on board, she was going to Australia with her husband and one little girl. She was about thirty, and very delicate. Gerald"s face took her fancy, and they struck up an acquaintance.
The evening was so calm, so mild, the water so still, the sky above so clear that the pa.s.sengers brought wraps and lingered long on deck. Mrs.
Harvey talked all the time to Gerald. He answered her not only politely but with interest. She was an interesting woman, she could talk well, she had great sympathy, and she wanted to draw Wyndham out. In this she failed, although she imagined she succeeded. He learned much of her history, for she was very communicative, but when she joined her husband downstairs later that evening she could not tell him a single thing about their fellow-pa.s.senger.
"He has a nice face," they both remarked, and they wondered who he was.
It did not occur to them to speak of him as sad-looking. On the contrary, Mrs. Harvey spoke of his cheerful smile and of his strong appreciation of humor.
"It is delightful to meet a man who can see a joke," she said. "Most of them are so dense."
"I wonder which family of Wyndhams he belongs to," remarked the husband.
"I wonder if he is married," added the wife.
Then they both resolved that they would find out to-morrow. But they did not, for the next day Wyndham did not come on deck at all. He stayed in his own cabin, and had one or two interviews with the captain.
"You know very little about me, Captain Jellyby," he said, once.
"I know that you are married to Miss Paget," replied the captain, "and I am given to understand that she is a very charming young lady."
"I want you to keep the fact of my marriage to yourself."
The captain looked a little surprised.
"Certainly, if you wish it," he said.
"I do wish it. I am knocked over to-day, for the fact is, I--I have gone through some trouble, but I don"t mean to inflict my troubles on you or my fellow-pa.s.sengers. I hope I shall prove an acquisition rather than otherwise on board the _Esperance_. But what I do not want, what would be particularly repellant to me, is that the other saloon pa.s.sengers should gossip about me. When they find that I don"t talk about myself, or my people, or my wife, they will become curious, and ply you with questions. Will you be mum on the subject?"
"Mum as the grave," said the captain rising and stretching himself.
"Lord, we"ll have some fun over this. If there are a deadly curious, gossiping, wrangling, hole-picking set in this wide world, it"s the saloon pa.s.sengers on board a boat of this kind. I"ll make up a beautiful mystery about you, my fine fellow. Won"t they enjoy it! Why, it will be the saving of them."
"Make up any mystery you like," replied Wyndham, "only don"t tell them the truth. That is, I mean, what you know of the truth."
"And that"s nothing," muttered the captain to himself as he went away.
"Bless me, he is a queer fellow. Touched--he must be touched."
Gerald spent twenty-four hours in G.o.d only knows what deep waters of mental agony. The other pa.s.sengers thought he was suffering from an attack of sea-sickness, for they were just now meeting the heavy channel sea, and the captain did not undeceive them. They pa.s.sed Plymouth before Gerald again appeared on deck, and when he once more joined his fellow-pa.s.sengers they were outside the Bay of Biscay.
Gerald had not suffered from any bodily discomfort, but others on board the _Esperance_ were less fortunate, and when he once more took his place in the saloon, and went up on deck, he found that work, which all his life long seemed to fall to his share, once more waiting for him.
It was the work of making other people comfortable. The Harveys" little girl was very weak and fretful. She had gone through a bad time, but when Wyndham lifted her in his arms, sat down with her in a sheltered part of the deck, and told her some funny fairy tales, his influence worked like the wand of a good magician. She smiled, told Mr. Wyndham he was a very nice man, gave him a kiss, and ran downstairs presently to eat her supper with appet.i.te.
Little Cecily Harvey was not the only person who came under Wyndham"s soothing influence. During this first evening he found himself more or less in the position of a sort of general sick-nurse. But the next day people were better, and then he appeared in another _role_. He could entertain, with stories, with music, with song. He could recite; above all things he could organize, and had a knack of showing off other people to the best advantage. Long before a week had pa.s.sed, Wyndham was the most popular person on board. He was not only popular with saloon pa.s.sengers, but with the emigrants. There were several on board, and he often spent some hours with them, playing with the children, and talking with the mothers, or, rather, getting the mothers to talk to him.
They were flying south now, and every day the air grew more balmy and the sea smoother. The emigrants, boys and girls, fathers and mothers, used to lie out on the deck in the sun, and a very pretty picture they made; the children rolling about laughing and playing, and the mothers, most of them were young mothers, looking on and regarding them with pride.
There was scarcely an emigrant mother on board that ship who had not confided her story, her hopes and her fears to Wyndham, before the voyage was over.
Soon that thing happened which had happened long ago at Jewsbury-on-the-Wold, which had happened in the small house in Park-lane, which had happened even with the odds against him to his wife--everybody loved Wyndham. Hearts warmed as he came near, eyes brightened when they looked at him. He was in the position of a universal favorite. That sometimes is a dangerous position. But not in his case, for he was too unselfish to make enemies.
All this time, while his life was apparently drifting, while the hours were apparently gliding on to no definite or especial goal, to a landing at Melbourne--to a journey across a new Continent--while his days were going by to all intents and purposes like anybody else"s days, he knew that between him and them lay an immeasurable gulf. He knew that he was not drifting, but going very rapidly down a hill. The fact is, Wyndham knew that the end, as far as he was concerned, was near.
His father-in-law had planned one thing, but he had planned another. He told no one of this, he never whispered this to a living creature, but his own mind was inexorably made up. He knew it when he bade his father good-bye that last Sunday; when he looked at Lilias and Marjory, and the other children, he knew it; he knew it when he kissed his wife"s cheek that last morning when she slept. In his own way he could be a man of iron will. His will was as iron in this special matter. Only once had his determination been shaken, and that was when he pleaded with Valentine, and when he hoped against hope that she would listen to his prayer. The last lingering sparks of that hope died away when the captain refused to touch at Plymouth. After that moment his own fixed will never wavered.
His father-in-law had asked him for half a death; he should have a whole one. That was all. Many another man had done what he meant to do before. Still it was the End--the great End. No one could go beyond it.