Eventually it began to rain, and she went below and sat in the
saloon, trying, quite ineffectually, to ease her torment of suspense
with a book. But she comprehended nothing of what she read, and when the
young cabin steward appeared again to set the dinner she looked up in
desperation.
She was on the point of questioning him as to his master's whereabouts;
the question, indeed, was already half uttered, when her eyes went
beyond him and she broke off short.
Pierre himself was quietly entering through the companion door.
He bowed to her in his abrupt way, and signed to the lad to continue his
task.
"He understands no English," he said. "You do not object to his
presence?"
She replied in the negative, though in her heart she wished he had
dismissed him. She could not meet his eyes before a third person. It
added tenfold to her embarrassment.
But when he seated himself near her, she did venture a fleeting glance
at him, and was amazed unspeakably by what she saw. For his face was
haggard and drawn like the face of a sick man, and every hint of
arrogance was gone from his bearing. He looked beaten.
He began to speak at once, jerkily, unnaturally, almost as if he also
were embarrassed. "I have something to say to you," he said, "which I
beg you will hear with patience. It concerns your future--and mine."
The strangeness of his manner, his obvious dejection, the amazing
humility of his address, combined to endue Stephanie with a composure
she had scarcely hoped to attain.
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