It was very dark. No more than three or four lamps on the pier were
burning, but nevertheless I was afraid that the pier-master would
recognise me.
I thought he did so as I approached the gangway to the saloon, for he
said:
"Private cabin on main deck aft."
Nervous as I was, I had just enough presence of mind to say "Steerage,
please," which threw him off the scent entirely, so that he cried, in
quite a different voice:
"Steerage passengers forward."
I found my way to the steerage end of the steamer; and in order to
escape observation from the few persons on the pier I went down to the
steerage cabin, which was a little triangular place in the bow, with an
open stove in the middle of the floor and a bleary oil-lamp swinging
from a rafter overhead.
The porter found me there, and in my foolish ignorance of the value of
money I gave him half a crown for his trouble. He first looked at the
coin, then tested it between his teeth, then spat on it, and finally
went off chuckling.
The first and second bells rang. I grudged every moment of delay before
the steamer sailed, for I still felt like a prisoner who was running
away and might even yet be brought back.
Seating myself in the darkest corner of the cabin, I waited and watched.
There were only two other steerage passengers and they were women.
Judging by their conversation I concluded that they were cooks from
lodging-houses on "the front," returning after a long season to their
homes in Liverpool. Both were very tired, and they were spreading their
blankets on the bare bunks so as to settle themselves for the night.
At last the third bell rang. I heard the engine whistle, the funnel
belch out its smoke, the hawsers being thrown off, the gangways being
taken in, and then, looking through the porthole, I saw the grey pier
gliding behind us.
After a few moments, with a feeling of safety and a sense of danger
passed, I went up on deck. But oh, how little I knew what bitter pain I
was putting myself to!
We were just then swinging round the lighthouse which stands on the
south-east headland of the bay, and the flash of its revolving light in
my face as I reached the top of the cabin stairs brought back the memory
of the joyous and tumultuous scenes of Martin's last departure.
That, coupled and contrasted with the circumstances of my own flight,
stealthily, shamefully, and in the dead of night, gave me a pang that
was almost more than I could bear.
But my cup was not yet full. A few minutes afterwards we sailed in the
dark past the two headlands of Port Raa, and, looking up, I saw the
lights in the windows of my husband's house, and the glow over the glass
roof of the pavilion.
What would happen there to-morrow morning when it was discovered that I
was gone? What would happen to-morrow night when my father arrived,
ignorant of my flight, as I felt sure the malice of my husband would
keep him?
Little as I knew then of my father's real motives in giving that bizarre
and rather vulgar entertainment, I thought I saw and heard everything
that would occur.
I saw the dazzling spectacle, I saw the five hundred guests, I saw Alma
and my husband, and above all I saw my father, the old man stricken with
mortal maladies, the wounded lion whom the shadow of death itself could
not subdue, degraded to the dust in his hour of pride by the act of his
own child.
I heard his shouts of rage, his cries of fury, his imprecations on me as
one who should never touch a farthing of his fortune. And then I heard
the whispering of his "friends," who were telling the "true story" of my
disappearance, the tale of my "treacheries" to my husband--just as if
Satan had willed it that the only result of the foolish fête on which my
father had wasted his wealth like water should be the publication of my
shame.
But the bitterest part of my experience was still to come. In a few
minutes we sailed past the headlands of Port Raa, the lights of my
husband's house shot out of view like meteors on a murky night, and the
steamer turned her head to the open sea.
I was standing by a rope which crossed the bow and holding on to it to
save myself from falling, for, being alone with Nature at last, I was
seeing my flight for the first time in full light.
I was telling myself that as surely as my flight became known Martin's
name would be linked with mine, and the honour that was dearer to me
than, my own would be buried in disgrace.
O God! O God! Why should Nature be so hard and cruel to a woman? Why
should it be permitted that, having done no worse than obey the purest
impulses of my heart, the iron law of my sex should rise up to condemn
both me and the one who was dearer to my soul than life itself?
I hardly know how long I stood there, holding on to that rope. There was
no sound now except the tread of a sailor in his heavy boots, an
inarticulate call from the bridge, an answering shout from the wheel,
the rattling of the wind in the rigging, the throbbing of the engine in
the bowels of the ship, and the monotonous wash of the waves against her
side.
Oh, how little I felt, how weak, how helpless!
I looked up towards the sky, but there seemed to be no sky, no moon, and
no stars, only a vaporous blackness that came down and closed about me.
I looked out to the sea, but there seemed to be no sea, only a hissing
splash of green spray where the steamer's forward light fell on the
water which her bow was pitching up, and beyond that nothing but a
threatening and thundering void.
I did not weep, but I felt as other women had felt before me, as other
women have felt since, as women must always feel after they have sinned
against the world and the world's law, that there was nothing before me
but the blackness of night.
"Out of the depths I cry unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my cry."
But all at once a blessed thought came to me. We were travelling
eastward, and dark as the night was now, in a few hours the day would
dawn, the sun would shine in our faces and the sky would smile over our
heads!
It would be like that with me. Martin would come back. I was only going
to meet him. It was dark midnight with me now, but I was sailing into
the sunrise!
Perhaps I was like a child, but I think that comforted me.
At all events I went down to the little triangular cabin with a cheerful
heart, forgetting that I was a runaway, a homeless wanderer, an outcast,
with nothing before me but the wilderness of London where I should be
friendless and alone.
The fire had gone out by this time, the oil-lamp was swinging to the
motion of the ship, the timbers were creaking, and the Liverpool women
were asleep.