We had been a long time together in the little office, longer even
than this extended conversation would lead a reader to imagine, and
as I went through the saloon I saw that they were laying the table
for lunch, a sight by no means ungrateful to me, for I had risen
early and enjoyed but a small and frugal breakfast. I surmised from
the preparations going forward that I should in the near future
have something better than rice. When I reached the deck I saw the
captain smoking a pipe and still pacing the bridge with his hands
in his pockets. He was a grizzled old sea-dog, who, I found later,
had come from the Cape Cod district, and was what he looked, a most
capable man. I went aft and sat down, not wishing to go forward and
became acquainted with the captain, as I expected every moment that
Mr. Hemster would come up and give him his sailing-orders. But time
passed on and nothing happened, merely the same state of tension that
occurs when every one is ready to move and no move is made. At last
the gong sounded for lunch. I saw the captain pause in his promenade,
knock the ashes out of his pipe into the palm of his hand, and prepare
to go down. So I rose and descended the stairway, giving a nod of
recognition to the captain, who followed at my heels. The table was
laid for five persons. Mr. Hemster occupied the position at the head
of it, and on his right sat his daughter, her head bent down over
the tablecloth. On the opposite side, at Mr. Hemster’s left, sat the
young lady of whom I had had a glimpse the afternoon before. The
captain pushed past me with a gruff, “How de do, all,” which was not
responded to. He took the place at the farther end of the table. If I
have described the situation on deck as a state of tension, much more
so was the atmosphere of the dining-saloon. The silence was painful,
and, not knowing what better to do, I approached Miss Hemster and said
pleasantly:
“Good-morning. I hope you are none the worse for your shopping
expedition of yesterday.”
The young woman did not look up or reply till her father said in
beseeching tones:
“Gertie, Mr. Tremorne is speaking to you.”
Then she glanced at me with eyes that seemed to sparkle dangerously.
“Oh, how do you do?” she said rapidly. “Your place is over there by
Miss Stretton.”
There was something so insulting in the tone and inflection that it
made the words, simple as they were, seem like a slap in the face.
Their purport seemed to be to put me in my proper position in that
society, to warn me that, if I had been treated as a friend the day
before, conditions were now changed, and I was merely, as she had
previously remarked, her father’s hired man. My situation was anything
but an enviable one, and as there was nothing to say I merely bowed
low to the girl, walked around behind the captain, and took my place
beside Miss Stretton, as I had been commanded to do. I confess I was
deeply hurt by the studied insolence of look and voice; but a moment
later I felt that I was probably making a mountain of a molehill, for
the good, bluff captain said, as if nothing unusual had happened:
“That’s right, young man; I see you have been correctly brought up.
Always do what the women tell you. Obey orders if you break owners.
That’s what we do in our country. In our country, sir, we allow the
women to rule, and their word is law, even though the men vote.”
“Such is not the case in the East,” I could not help replying.
“Why,” said the captain, “it’s the East I’m talking about. All
throughout the Eastern States, yes, and the Western States, too.”
“Oh, I beg your pardon,” I replied, “I was referring to the East of
Asia. The women don’t rule in these countries.”
“Well,” said the staunch captain, “then that’s the reason they amount
to so little. I never knew an Eastern country yet that was worth the
powder to blow it up.”
“I’m afraid,” said I, “that your rule does not prove universally good.
It’s a woman who reigns in China, and I shouldn’t hold that Empire up
as an example to others.”
The captain laughed heartily.
“Young man, you’re contradicting yourself. You’re excited, I guess. You
said a minute ago that women didn’t rule in the East, and now you show
that the largest country in the East _is_ ruled by a woman. You can’t
have it both ways, you know.”
I laughed somewhat dismally in sympathy with him, and, lunch now being
served, the good man devoted his entire attention to eating. As no one
else said a word except the captain and myself, I made a feeble but
futile attempt to cause the conversation to become general. I glanced
at my fair neighbor to the right, who had not looked up once since
I entered. Miss Stretton was not nearly so handsome a girl as Miss
Hemster, yet nevertheless in any ordinary company she would be regarded
as very good-looking. She had a sweet and sympathetic face, and at the
present moment it was rosy red.
“Have you been in Nagasaki?” I asked, which was a stupid question, for
I knew she had not visited the town the day before, and unless she had
gone very early there was no time for her to have been ashore before I
came aboard.
She answered “No” in such low tones that, fearing I had not heard it,
she cleared her throat, and said “No” again. Then she raised her eyes
for one brief second, cast a sidelong glance at me, so appealing and so
vivid with intelligence, that I read it at once to mean, “Oh, please do
not talk to me.”
The meal was most excellent, yet I never remember to have endured a
half-hour so unpleasant. Across the table from me, Miss Hemster had
pushed away plate after plate and had touched nothing. When I spoke to
her companion she began drumming nervously on the tablecloth with her
fingers, as if she had great difficulty in preventing herself giving
expression to an anger that was only too palpable. Her father went on
stolidly with his lunch, and made no effort to relieve the rigor of
the amazing situation. As soon as the main dish had been served and
disposed of, the captain rose, and, nodding to the company, made for
the companion-way. Once there he turned on his heel and said:
“Mr. Hemster, any orders?”
Before her father could reply, the young lady rose with an action so
sudden and a gesture of her right hand so sweeping that the plate
before her toppled and fell with a crash to the floor. I noticed Mr.
Hemster instinctively grasp the tablecloth, but the girl marched away
as erect as a grenadier, her shapely shoulders squared as if she was on
military parade, and thus she disappeared into the forward part of the
ship. Miss Stretton looked up at her employer, received a slight nod,
then she, with a murmur of excuse to me, rose and followed the mistress
of the ship. I heard a loud, angry voice, shrill as that of a peacock,
for a moment, then a door was closed, and all was still. Mr. Hemster
said slowly to the captain:
“I’ll be up there in a minute and let you know where we’re going. We’ve
got all the time there is, you know.”
“Certainly, sir,” said the captain, disappearing.
There was nothing to say, so I said nothing, and Mr. Hemster and I sat
out our lonely meal together. He seemed in no way perturbed by what
had taken place, and as, after all, it was no affair of mine, even
if my unfortunate remark regarding the Mikado had been the cause of
it, I said inwardly there was little reason for my disturbing myself
about it. Although the old gentleman showed no outward sign of inward
commotion, he nevertheless seemed anxious that our dismal meal should
draw to a speedy close, for he said to me at last:
“If you wish for coffee, you can have it served to you on deck.”
“Thank you,” said I, glad to avail myself of the opportunity to escape.
As I mounted the companion-way I heard him say in firmer tones than I
had known him to use before:
“Tell my daughter to come here to me,”--a command answered by the
gentle “Yes, sir,” of the Japanese boy.
I moved the wicker chair and table as far aft as possible, to be
out of earshot should any remarks follow me from the saloon. I saw
the captain on the bridge again, pacing up and down, pipe in mouth
and, hands in pockets. Even at that distance I noticed on his face a
semi-comical grimace, and it actually seemed to me that he winked his
left eye in my direction. The coffee did not come, and as I rose to
stroll forward and converse with the captain I could not help hearing
the low determined tones of the man down in the saloon, mingled now
and then with the high-pitched, angry voice of the woman. As I hurried
forward there next came up the companion-way a scream so terrible and
ear-piercing that it must have startled every one on board, yet nobody
moved. This was followed instantly by a crash, as if the table had been
flung over, which of course was impossible, as it was fastened to the
floor. Then came the hysterical, terrifying half-scream, half-sob of a
woman apparently in mortal agony, and instinctively I started down the
companion-way, to be met by Miss Stretton, who stretched her arms from
side to side of the stairway. The appealing look I had noticed before
was in her eyes, and she said in a low voice:
“Please don’t come down. You can do no good.”
“Is anybody hurt?” I cried.
“No, nobody, nobody. Please don’t come down.”
I turned back, and not wishing to see the captain or any one else at
that moment, sat down in my chair again. The sobs died away, and then
Mr. Hemster came up the companion-way with a determined look on his
face which seemed to me to say, “Women do not rule after all.” Once on
deck he shouted out to the captain the one word:
“Corea!”