THE OCCIDENT AND THE ORIENT MEET.
The ship was twenty-four days in reaching Melbourne. It caught a gale
crossing the stormy Bight, and for two days no progress was made. It was
all that the men in charge could do to hold the plunging craft up into
the face of the storm and meet the big seas as they rolled, furious, up
against her stem. But the winds were laid at last, the ship was put upon
her course and her natural speed resumed. On the afternoon of the
twenty-fourth day the ship passed between the heads of Port Philip, and
two hours later came to anchor before Sandridge, three miles below
Melbourne. Going ashore, Sedgwick cabled to his wife his arrival on his
way to San Francisco, "as first letters from Port Natal would explain,"
and added: "Hope to be with you in one hundred days. Write, care
Occidental Hotel, San Francisco." Then he took the night train for
Sidney, and arrived there the next night about nine o'clock.
Going to a hotel, he found that the first steamer for San Francisco would
sail on the next day but one.
He then sought his first sleep in a comfortable house, with modern
improvements, that he had found since he left London.
Next morning he went early and secured transportation on the steamer,
then returned and wrote a long letter to his girl-bride; then engaging a
rig took in as much of Sidney as he could. Next morning he cabled his
wife that he was just going to sea again, and boarded the steamer early.
The ship sailed promptly at midday, and as it passed out of the
beautiful harbor the islands and shores beyond were just putting on the
vestments of spring. Sedgwick had never before seen spring approaching in
October; never before had he heard the love-calls of mating birds at that
season, and apparently had never before realized so keenly that he was on
the other side of the world from those whom he loved and knew. After
dinner he went on deck. He knew no one on board, and he was nearer being
homesick than he had ever been before. It was a balmy night. The sea was
tumbling a little from the effects of a far-off storm, but the ship was
riding the waves superbly and making rapid progress, and the stars were
all out and sweeping grandly on in their never-ending, stately
processions.
In the midst of his thoughts, when he was fast giving way to a mighty
fit of the blues, he happened to glance upward. _Corona Australis_
was blazing with unwonted brilliancy, and, it seemed to him, the
constellation was making signs to him from its signal station in the
heavens. Instantly he thought of the night that he and Jordan had
particularly noticed it, and of what the great-hearted man had said. Then
he thought of his friend; how unselfishly he had turned his face away
from the ship that would have carried him to a pleasanter country, and
had voluntarily gone back into that profound wilderness to work out
a trust which would require months of time; and he said to himself: "What
a selfish creature I am to repine, when I have been so blessed; when in
England an angel is waiting for me; when in the depths of Africa a brave
soul by his every act is teaching me lessons of self-abnegation."
A moment later another thought came to him which was a delight, and that
was that with every revolution of the screw he was drawing nearer to his
Grace. When an hour later he retired to his state-room he hummed a song as
he went, and the throbbing of the machinery and the wash of the seas
against the ship's beam made his lullaby, as the long roll of the steamer
rocked him to sleep.
As before stated, Sedgwick had written his wife fully at Port Natal. Two
days after he left, the steamer from the North came in. It remained five
days, and then started North again. Its mails were eighteen days in
reaching London.
Grace was looking for a letter from Port Natal, when Sedgwick's cable
from Melbourne reached her. She could not quite comprehend the matter
until, a day later, his letter came, and the next day his second cable,
announcing that he was just about to sail for San Francisco. That day she
did what she had not done since she left school--got a map of the world
and studied it until she put her finger on a spot between Sidney and New
Zealand, and said: "He is there now," and bent and kissed the place on
the map.
That evening she went over from her home to call upon Jack and Rose.
There she found a gentleman who, with his wife and daughter, were going
to sail two days later for Australia, via New York and San Francisco.
Their names were Hobart. Grace had known them ever since her father had
moved to London. They were talking of their proposed journey, when the
young lady said gaily: "Mrs. Sedgwick, come along with us as far as New
York, or San Francisco at least." At this the father and mother together
seconded the invitation.
"Do you really mean it?" said Grace.
"Indeed we do," said all three.
"And when do you sail?" asked Grace.
"Early, day after to-morrow. That is, we leave here early and sail at
noon," said Mr. Hobart. "We have two full staterooms engaged. You can
room with Lottie"--the young lady's name--"and be companion for us all."
"I will be ready day after to-morrow morning," said Grace, seriously.
"Not in earnest?" said Rose.
"In sober earnest," said Grace.
"To New York?" said Browning.
"To New York, and may be farther," was the reply.
"As far as Ohio, I guess," said Jack.
"May be as far as Ohio," said Grace, and she smiled as she spoke.
The Hobarts were delighted, but Jack and Rose looked serious.
"It is a long way, Gracie," said Jack.
"A fearfully long way," said Rose.
"Suppose, Rose, that Jack was as far away, would you think it a long way
to go to see him?" asked Grace.
"O, Gracie! No, no," said Rose.
"When did you hear last from your husband?" asked Hobart.
"This afternoon," said Grace.
"And how long, Grace, before he will be in England?" asked Jack.
It was the first time any question had been asked of her more than the
question if she had heard, and if he was well.
"About one hundred days, I think," said Grace; "that is," she added, "if
I go and find him and bring him home."
Next day Grace made all her arrangements and was ready to leave early on
the following morning. Parting with her mother was her great sorrow, but
the mother approved of her going, and the good-byes were not so sad as
though they did not expect to be soon again reunited.
They made the voyage to New York in nine days. Remaining one day in that
city, they started West; stopped one day in Chicago, and reached San
Francisco seventeen days from Liverpool.
Hobart had been in San Francisco before, and wanted to stop at the Lick
House, but Grace insisted that her friends liked the Occidental best; so
they went to the Occidental.
Four days after reaching San Francisco, the Hobarts sailed for Australia.
They urged Grace to accompany them, but she declined, saying, with a
smile, that she believed for the present she preferred the solid earth to
the unstable sea. She saw her friends aboard the steamer; then returning
to the hotel, sent for the manager, Major H.; explained that she expected
her husband by the first steamer from Australia; that he did not expect
to find her; so she wished to surprise him, and desired the finest
apartments in the hotel, including a private dining-room; and requested
that when it was known that the ship was coming up the harbor, the rooms
should be elaborately dressed with flowers. She also stipulated that her
husband, on his coming, should be conducted to his apartments without any
knowledge that any one was waiting for him.
Major H., captivated by the little English lady, entered into the full
spirit of the programme and promised that he would personally attend to
the matter.
Grace was transferred to the new rooms, and thereafter had her meals
served in her own dining-room.
Three days later, about one p.m., a message came that the Australian
steamer had at noon been sighted outside the Heads, and was then entering
the Golden Gate.
The flowers were forthcoming; the apartments were swiftly decorated; then
Grace, with the utmost painstaking, robed herself in her richest costume
and seated herself in the private dining-room, with the sliding doors
slightly ajar so that she could look through into the parlor of the suite
without being seen.
The suspense was fearful to her for half an hour. Would he really come?
Separating in London, and he traveling east, would she by coming west
find him? Would he be well? Had he really escaped the African fever and
all the dangers that lurked in the weary stretches of treacherous
billows?
Those were a few of the questions she was asking herself, when, in the
hall, a well-known voice rang out which made her heart bound. It was
saying: "There must be an oversight somewhere. I surely ought to have had
some letters awaiting me."
The door opened, and the hearty voice of Major H. was heard by the
listener. "These are your apartments, Mr. Sedgwick," he said, "and
I trust you will find them pleasant."
Then the other occupant said: "But I do not care for any such rich rooms
as these; any little corner will suffice for me."
"Oh no," said the Major. "Try these quarters for a day or two, and if by
that time you wish to exchange them for others, we will see to it. We try
to please our Australian friends, for we hope for more and more of them
throughout all the years to come."
With that he closed the door.
"Australia!" Grace heard her husband say. "I'm no Australian; I'm a
full-blooded African, a regular Boer or Kaffir, and no mistake. But,
bless my soul, this is a fairy spot! A way-up place, surely! From
the depths of Africa and the society of Boers and Kaffirs to an enchanted
palace! This must be the bridal chamber of the establishment. I believe
they have made a mistake and think me the King of the Pearl and Opal
Islands. I wish dear old Jordan could see this. I wish, O God, I wish my
Grace, my queen, could see this, that I might first crown her with
flowers, and then fall down and worship her!"
She could bear the tension no longer. Pushing the doors back quickly, she
stood pale, but radiant, for an instant, before the astonished man; then
stretching out her divine arms, said, "O, my darling!"