She was
glad to aid in bridging the chasm between north and south. Her traveling
dress of blue was appropriately trimmed with gray.
The gorgeously dressed gambler walked on the deck alone. Then came two
modest nuns dressed in gray and white. Alfonso and his mother, the judge
and Lucille, and a group of little children followed. Dr. Argyle and a
Philadelphia heiress kept step. Everybody walked, talked, and laughed,
and the passengers had little need of the ship's doctor now. If the
weather is fair the decks are always enlivened as a steamer approaches
land. The next day, by noon at latest, Ireland and Fastnet Rock would
be sighted, if the ship's reckoning had been correct.
After dinner, Dr. Argyle was walking the deck with Lucille in the
star-light. He had told her much of his family, of his talented brother
in the Church, and of another in the army; he had even ventured
to speak of Lucille's grace of manner, and she feared what might follow.
The call of Mrs. Harris relieved Lucille of an unpleasant situation.
Secretly, Lucille was pleased to escape from Dr. Argyle. Something in his
manner told her that he was not sincere; that he was a schemer, perhaps a
fortune-seeker, and she gladly rejoined her mother.
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