NEW SHORES.
The moonlight lay on the moving Atlantic, and filled the hollow world
with a radiance soft and gray and vague; but it struck sharp and white
on the polished rails and spars of this great steamer, and shone on the
long and shapely decks, and on the broad track of foam that went away
back and back and back until it was lost in the horizon. It was late;
and nearly all the passengers had gone below. In the silence there was
only heard the monotonous sound of the engines, and the continuous rush
and seething of the waters as the huge vessel clove its way onward.
Out there by the rail, in the white light, Natalie Lind lay back in her
chair, all wrapped up in furs, and her lover was by her side, on a rug
on the deck, his hand placed over her hand.
"To-morrow, then, Natalie," he was saying, "you will get your first
glimpse of America."
"So you see I have procured your banishment after all," she said, with a
smile.
"Not you," was the answer. "I had thought of it often. For a new life, a
new world; and it is a new life you and I are beginning together."
Here the bell in the steering-room struck the half-hour; it was repeated
by the lookout forward. The sound was strange, in the silence.
"Do you know," he said, after a while, "after we have done a fair share
of work, we might think ourselves entitled to rest; and what better
could we do than go back to England for a time, and go down to the old
place in Buckinghamshire? Then Mrs. Alleyne would be satisfied at last.
How proud the old dame was when she recognized you from your portrait!
She thought all her dreams had come true, and that there was nothing
left but to the Checkers and carry off that old cabinet as a wedding
present."
"Natalie," he said, presently, "how is it that you always manage to do
the right thing at the right time? When Mrs. Alleyne took your mother
and you in to the Checkers, and old Mrs. Diggles led you into her parlor
and dusted the table with her apron, what made you think of asking her
for a piece of cake and a cup of tea?"
"My dearest, I saw the cake in the bar!" she exclaimed.
"I believe the old woman was ready to faint with delight when you
praised her currant-wine, and asked how she made it. You have a
wonderful way of getting round people--whether by fair means or
otherwise I don't know. Do you think if it had been anybody else but you
who went to Von Zoesch in Genoa, he would have let Calabressa come with
us to America?"
"Poor old Calabressa!" she said, laughing; "he is very brave now about
the sea; but he was terribly frightened that bad night we had after
leaving Queenstown."
Here some one appeared in the dusky recess at the top of the
companion-stairs, and stepped out into the open.
"Are you people never coming below at all?" he said. "I have to inform
you, Miss Natalie, with your mamma's compliments, that she can't get on
with her English verbs because of that fat girl playing Strauss; and
that she is going to her cabin, and wants to know when you are coming."
"Now, at once," said Natalie, getting up out of her chair. "But wait a
moment, Evelyn: I cannot go without bidding good-night to Calabressa.
Where is Calabressa?"
"Calabressa! Oh, in the smoking-room, betting like mad, and going in for
all the mock-auctions. I expect some of them will sit up all night to
get their first sight of the land. The pilot expects that will be
shortly after daybreak."
"You will be in time for that, Natalie, won't you?" Brand asked.
"Oh yes. Good-night, Evelyn!" and she gave him her hand.
Brand went with her down the companion-stairs, carrying her rugs and
shawls. In the corridor she turned to bid him good-night also.
"Dearest," she said, in a low voice, "do you know what I have been
trying all day--to get you to say one word, the smallest word, of
regret?"
"But if I have no regret whatever, how can I express any?"
"Sure?"
He laughed, and kissed her.
"Good-night, my darling!"
"Good-night; God bless you!"
Then he made his way along the gloomy corridor again and up the broad
zinc steps, and out into the moonlight. Evelyn was there, leaning with
his arms on the hand-rail, and idly watching, far below, the gleams of
light on the gray-black waves.
"It is too fine a night to go below," he said. "What do you say,
Brand--shall we wait up for the daylight and the first glimpse of
America?"
"If you like," said Brand, taking out his cigar-case, and hauling along
the chair in which Natalie had been sitting.
They had the whole of this upper deck to themselves, except when one or
other of the officers passed on his rounds. They could talk without risk
of being overheard: and they had plenty to talk about--of all that had
happened of late, of all that might happen to them in this new country
they were nearing.
"Well," he said, "Evelyn, that settlement in Genoa clinched everything,
as far as I am concerned. I have no longer any doubt, any hesitation:
there is nothing to be concealed now--nothing to be withheld, even from
those who are content to remain merely as our friends. One might have
gone on as before; for, after all, these death-penalties only attached
to the officers; and the great mass of the members, not being touched by
them, need have known nothing about them. But it is better now."
"It was Natalie's appeal that settled that," Lord Evelyn said, as he
still watched the shining waves.
"The influence of that girl is extraordinary. One could imagine that
some magnetism radiated from her; or perhaps it is her voice, and her
clear faith, and her enthusiasm. When she said something to old Anton
Pepczinski, on bidding him good-bye--not about herself, or about him,
but about what some of us were hoping for--he was crying like a child!
In other times she might have done great things: she might have led
armies."
By-and-by he said,
"As for those decrees, what use were they? From all I could learn, only
ten have been issued since the Society was in existence; and eight of
those were for the punishment of officers, who ought merely to have been
expelled. Of course you will get people like Calabressa, with a touch of
theatrical-mindedness, who have a love for the terrorism such a thing
can produce. But what use is it? It is not by striking down an
individual here or there that you can help on any wide movement; and
this great organization, that I can see in the future will have other
things to do than take heed of personal delinquencies--except in so far
as to purge out from itself unworthy members--its action will affect
continents, not persons."
"You can see that--you believe that, Brand?" Lord Evelyn, said, turning
and regarding him.
"Yes, I think so," he answered, without enthusiasm, but with simple
sincerity. Presently he said, "You remember, Evelyn, the morning we
turned out of the little inn on the top of the Niessen, to see the sun
rise over the Bernese Alps?"
"I remember it was precious cold," said Lord Evelyn, almost with a
shiver.
"You remember, when we got to the highest point, we looked down into the
great valleys, where the lakes and the villages were, and there it was
still night under the heavy clouds. But before us, where the peaks of
the Jungfrau, and the Wetterhorn, and the rest of them rose into the
clear sky, there was a curious faint light that showed the day was
coming. And we waited and watched, and the light grew stronger, and all
sorts of colors began to show along the peaks. That was the sunrise. But
down in the valleys everything was misty and dark and cold--everything
asleep; the people there could see nothing of the new day we were
looking at. And so I suppose it is with us now. We are looking ahead. We
see, or fancy we see, the light before the others; but, sooner or later,
they will see it also, for the sunrise is bound to come."
They continued talking, and they paced up and down the decks, while the
half-hours and hours were struck by the bells. The moon was declining to
the horizon. Long ago the last of the revellers had left the
smoking-room, and there was nothing to interrupt the stillness but the
surge of the waters.
Then again--
"Have you noticed Natalie's mother of late? It is a pleasure to watch
the poor woman's face; she seems to drink in happiness by merely looking
at her daughter; every time that Natalie laughs you can see her mother's
eyes brighten."
"I have noticed a great change in Natalie herself," Evelyn said. "She is
looking younger; she has lost that strange, half-apprehensive expression
of the eyes; and she seems to be in excellent spirits. Calabressa is
more devotedly her slave than ever."
"You should have seen him when Von Zoesch told him to pack up and be off
to America."
By-and-by he said,
"You know, Evelyn, if you can't stay in America with us altogether--and
that would be too much to expect--don't say anything as yet to Natalie
about your going back. She has the notion that our little colony is to
be founded as a permanency."
"Oh, I am in no hurry," said Evelyn, carelessly. "Things will get along
at home well enough without me. Didn't I tell you that, once those girls
began to go, they would go, like lightning? It is rough on Blanche,
though, that Truda should come next. By-the-way, in any case, Brand, I
must remain in America for your wedding."
"Oh, you will, will you?" said Brand. "Then that settles one point--you
won't be going back very soon."
"Why?"
"Of course, Natalie and I won't marry until she is of age; that is a
good year and a half yet. Did you hear of Calabressa's mad proposal that
he should extort from Lind his consent to our marriage as the price of
the good news that he, Calabressa, had to reveal? Like him, wasn't it?
an ingenious scheme."
"What did you say?"
"Why, what could I say? I would not be put under any obligation to Lind
on any account whatever. We can wait; it is not a long time."
The moonlight waned, and there was another light slowly declaring itself
in the east. The two friends continued talking, and did not notice how
that the cold blue light beyond the sea was gradually yielding to a
silver-gray. The pilot and first mate, who were on the bridge, had just
been joined by the captain.
The silver-gray in its turn gave place to a clear yellow, and high up
one or two flakes of cloud became of a saffron-red. Then the burning
edge of the sun appeared over the waves; the world lightened; the masts
and funnels of the steamer caught the glory streaming over from the
east. The ship seemed to waken also; one or two stragglers came tumbling
up from below, rubbing their eyes, and staring strangely around them;
but as yet no land was in sight.
The sunrise now flooded the sky and the sea; the number of those on deck
increased; and at last there was an eager passing round of binoculars,
and a murmur of eager interest. Those with sharp eyes enough could make
out, right ahead, in the midst of the pale glow of the morning, a thin
blue line of coast.
The great steamer surged on through the sunlit waters. And now even
those who were without glasses could distinguish, here and there along
that line of pale-blue land, a touch of yellowish-white; and they
guessed that the new world there was already shining with the light of
the new day. Brand felt a timid, small hand glide into his. Natalie was
standing beside him, her beautiful black hair a trifle dishevelled,
perhaps, and her eyes still bearing traces of her having been in the
realm of dreams; but those eyes were full of tenderness, nevertheless,
as she met his look. He asked her if she could make out that strip of
coast beyond the shining waters.
"Can you see, Natalie? It is our future home!"
"Oh yes, I can see it," she said; "and the sunrise is there before us:
it is a happy sign."
* * * * *
There remains to be added only this--that about the last thing Natalie
Lind did before leaving England was to go and plant some flowers,
carefully and tenderly, on Kirski's grave; and that about the first
thing she did on landing in America was to write to Madame Potecki,
asking her to look after the little Anneli, and sending many loving
messages: for this girl--or, rather, this beautiful child, as Calabressa
would persist in calling her--had a large heart, that could hold many
affections and many memories, and that was not capable of forgetting any
one who had been kind to her.
THE END.
[Transcriber's Note: obvious printer's errors / misspellings have been
corrected, please see the HTML version for detail.]