THE VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP ALBATROSS
This is where Destiny and the long arm of Coincidence play a part in the
making of all Romance. One quality surely there must be in such matters,
far more essential than that happiness ever after which the
sentimentalist so clamours for. That quality, it is, of Destiny, which
makes one know that, whatever renunciation and despair may follow, such
things were meant to be. Coincidence combines to make them so, and, you
may be sure, for a very good reason. And is it so long a stretch of the
arm from Sardinia Street Chapel to Kensington Gardens? Hardly! In
fiction, and along the high-road, perhaps it might be; but then this is
not fiction. This is true.
Romance then--let us get an entirely new definition for it--is a chain
of Circumstances which out of the infinite chaos links two living things
together for a definite end--that end which is a pendant upon the chain
itself and may be a heart with a lock of hair inside, or it may be a
cross, or a dagger, or a crown--you never know till the last link is
forged.
When he looked into the eyes of the lady of St. Joseph--so he had, since
that incident, called her in his mind--John knew that Destiny had a hand
in the matter.
He told me afterwards----
"You only meet the people in this world whom you are meant to meet.
Whether you want to meet them or not is another matter, and has no power
to bribe the hand of Circumstance."
He was generalising certainly, but that is the cloak under which a man
speaks of himself.
However that may be, and whether the law holds good or not, they met.
He saw the look of recognition that passed across her eyes; then he rose
to his feet.
The knowledge that you are in the hands of Destiny gives you boldness.
John marched directly across to her and lifted his hat.
"My name is Grey," he said--"John Grey. I'm taking it for granted that
St. Joseph has already introduced us and forgotten to tell you who I
was. If I take too much for granted, say so, I shall perfectly
understand."
Well, what could she say? You may tell a man that he's presumptuous;
but hardly when he presumes like this. Besides, there was Destiny at
the back of him, putting the words into his mouth.
She smiled. It was impossible to do otherwise.
"Do you think St. Joseph would be recognised in our society?" she asked.
"I have no doubt of it," said he. "St. Joseph was a very proper man."
They turned to a cry of the master mariner as the good ship _Albatross_
touched the beach. Immediately she was unloaded and her cargo brought
triumphantly to the owner.
"This," said John, "is the cargo of iron. Then I presume we're in
'Frisco.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"I heard the sailing orders given in the Docks at London ten minutes
ago."
She looked down, concealing a smile, at her brother, then at John,
lastly at the good ship _Albatross_--beached until further orders. He
watched her. She was making up her mind.
"Ronald," said she, when the wandering of her eyes had found decision,
"this is a friend of mine, Mr. Grey."
Ronald held out a horny hand.
"How do you do, sir."
Surely that settled matters? St. Joseph was approved of. She had
said--this is a friend of mine.
They shook hands then with a heavy grip. It is the recognised way with
those who go down to the sea in ships.
"When do you take your next voyage?" asked John.
"As soon as we can ship a cargo of gravel."
"And where are you bound for?"
"Port of Lagos--West Africa."
"Dangerous country, isn't it? Fever? White man's grave, and all that
sort of thing?"
"Those are the orders," said Ronald staunchly, looking up to his sister
for approval.
"I suppose you couldn't execute a secret commission for me," said John.
He laid a gentle stress on the word secret. "You couldn't carry private
papers and run a blockade?"
Private papers! Secret commission! Run a blockade! Why the good ship
_Albatross_ was just built for such nefarious trade as that.
John took the short story out of his pocket.
"Well, I want you to take this to the port of Venice," said he. "The
port of Venice on the Adriatic, and deliver it yourself into the hands
of one--Thomas Grey. There is a fortune to be made if you keep secret
and talk to no one of your business. Are you willing to undertake it and
share profits?"
"We'll do our best, sir," said Ronald.
Then the secret papers were taken aboard--off started the good ship
_Albatross_.
The other mariner came up just as she had set sail.
"What cargo have you got this time?" he whispered.
Ronald walked away.
"Mustn't tell," he replied sternly, and by such ready confession of
mystery laid himself open to all the perils of attack. That other
mariner must know he was bound on secret service, and perhaps by playing
the part of Thomas Grey on the other side of the round pond, would
probably be admitted into confidence. There is no knowing. You can
never be sure of what may happen in a world of romantic adventure.
John watched their departure lest his eagerness to talk to her alone
should seem too apparent. Then he turned, suggested a seat under the
elm trees and, in silence, they walked across the grass to the two
little penny chairs that stood expectantly together.
There they sat, still in silence, watching the people who were
promenading on the path that circles the round pond. Nurses and babies
and perambulators, there were countless of these, for in the gardens of
Kensington the babies grow like the tulips--rows upon rows of them, in
endless numbers. Like the tulips, too, the sun brings them out and
their gardeners take them and plant them under the trees. Every second
passer-by that sunny morning in April was a gardener with her tulip or
tulips, as the case might be; some red, some white, some just in bud,
some fully blown. Oh, it is a wonderful place for things to grow in, is
Kensington Gardens.
But there were other pedestrians than these. There were Darbys and
Joans, Edwards and Angelinas.
Then there passed by two solemn nuns in white, who had crosses hanging
from their waists and wore high-heeled shoes.
The lady of St. Joseph looked at John. John looked at her.
She lifted her eyebrows to a question.
"Protestant?" she said.
John nodded with a smile.
That broke the silence. Then they talked. They talked first of St.
Joseph.
"You always pray to St. Joseph?" said he.
"No--not always--only for certain things. I'm awfully fond of him, but
St. Cecilia's my saint. I don't like the look of St. Joseph, somehow or
other. Of course, I know he's awfully good, but I don't like his beard.
They always give him a brown beard, and I hate a man with a brown
beard."
"I saw St. Joseph once with a grey beard," said John.
"Grey? But he wasn't old."
"No, but this one I saw was grey. It was in Ardmore, a wee fishing
village in the county of Waterford, in Ireland. Ah, you should see
Ardmore. Heaven comes nearer to the sea there than any place I know."
"But what about St. Joseph?"
"Oh, St. Joseph! Well, there was a lady there intent upon the cause of
temperance. She built little temperance cafes all about the country,
and had the pictures of Cruikshank's story of the Bottle, framed and put
on all the walls. To propitiate the Fates for the cafe in Ardmore, she
decided also to set up the statue of St. Daeclan, their patron saint in
those parts. So she sent up to Mulcahy's, in Cork, for a statue of St.
Daeclan. Now St. Daeclan, you know, is scarcely in popular demand."
"I've never heard of him," said the lady of St. Joseph.
"Neither had I till I went to Ardmore. Well, anyhow, Mulcahy had not
got a statue. Should he send away and see if he could order one?
Certainly he should send away. A week later came the reply. There is
not a statue of St. Daeclan to be procured anywhere. Will an image of
St. Joseph do as well? It would have to do. Very well, it came--St.
Joseph with his brown beard.
"'If only we could have got St. Daeclan,' they said as they stood in
front of it. 'But he's too young for St. Daeclan. St. Daeclan was an
old man.'
"I suppose it did not occur to them that St. Daeclan may not have been
born old; but they conceived of a notion just as wise. They got a pot
of paint from Foley's, the provision store, and, with judicious
applications, they made grey the brown beard of St. Joseph, then,
washing out the gold letters of his name, they painted in place of them
the name of St. Daeclan."
The lady of St. Joseph smiled.
"Are you making this up?" asked she.
He shook his head.
"Well, then, the cafe was opened, and a little choir of birds from the
chapel began to sing, and all the people round about who had no
intention to be temperate, but loved a ceremony, came to see the
opening. They trouped into the little hall and stood with gaping mouths
looking at that false image which bore the superscription of St.
Daeclan, and the old women held up their hands and they said:
"Oh, shure, glory be to God! 'tis just loike the pore man--it is indeed.
Faith, I never want to see a better loikeness of himself than that."
John turned and looked at her.
"And there he stands to this day," he added--"as fine an example of good
faith and bad painting as I have ever seen in my life."
"What a delightful little story," she said, and she looked at him with
that expression in the eyes when admiration mingles so charmingly with
bewilderment that one is compelled to take them both as a compliment.
"Do you know you surprise me," she added.
"So I see," said he.
"You see?"
"In your eyes."
"You saw that?"
"Yes, you were wondering how I came to be praying--probably for
money--to St. Joseph--praying in an old blue serge suit that looked as
if a little money could easily be spent on it, and yet can afford to sit
out here in the morning in Kensington Gardens and tell you what you are
so good as to call a delightful little story?"
"That's quite true. I was wondering that."
"And I," said John, "have been wondering just the same about you."
What might not such a conversation as this have led to? They were just
beginning to tread upon that virgin soil from which any fruit may be
born. It is a wonderful moment that, the moment when two personalities
just touch. You can feel the contact tingling to the tips of your
fingers.
What might they not have talked of then? She might even have told him
why she was praying to St. Joseph, but then the master mariner returned,
bearing papers in his hand.
"Are you one Thomas Grey?" said he.
"I am that man," replied John.
"These are secret papers which I am to deliver into your hands. There
is a fortune to be made if you keep secret."
John took the short story.
"Secrecy shall be observed," said he.