Old man Stewart bent his shaggy eyebrows upon the speaker and replied very slowly and distinctly—
“Yes, I guess her health’s all right as far as we know. She isn’t what she used to be though, an’ I’ll admit that her keeping down as she has done is more than a little puzzling to her mother and me. And I’d about half made up my mind to ask you if you could give us any idea of what ailed her?”
The face that C. B. turned to Mr. Stewart was a study for a picture of complete blank astonishment. For a few moments he could not speak, but sat with his mouth partly open, while Mr. Stewart never relaxed his steady gaze into the young man’s face. Then he found his tongue and said with a sort of burst—
“Why, Mr. Stewart, what can you mean? Except at the outset of the passage, when she arranged for me to tell the story of my life, I have not exchanged a dozen words with your daughter, nor have I for the last fortnight scarcely had her in my mind. It suddenly dawned upon me as I talked with you that I had not seen her about in her usual lively fashion, and on the impulse of the moment I asked you of her health. And now you say you thought of asking me if I had any idea what was ailing her!”
Mr. Stewart’s brow relaxed, his grim mouth formed a smile, and he said cheerily—
“All right, sonny, I’m glad to see I hain’t made no mistake in ye. Forget what I said and put it down to an old man’s anxiety for his only child. An’ now about that journey of yours, I should recommend”—and the old gentleman went off into minutest details of trains, hotels, etc., in which C. B. followed painfully after him, feeling at every word how far from this wonderful world of struggle and stress he was removed. But what the reader will think of C. B.’s density with regard to Miss Stewart I do not know. It is hard for us to believe in a fancy free, unconceited youngster now, one who could have such a question put to him by a father concerning his daughter, as Mr. Stewart had just done to C. B., and not feel flattered and more conceited than before. But the old man showed his wonderful knowledge of human nature in dealing with C. B. as he did. In spite of his cynical disbelief in most, if not all, his fellow-men he paid unconscious tribute to C. B. in taking the step he did, and when he found his estimate justified he was inclined to be puffed up and say, “I told you so, I knew he was twenty-four carat stamped on every link. My judgment against the world.”
Many people, however, would exercise their privilege of sitting in judgment and call C. B. just plain fool. They are welcome, since such an ex parte statement does not affect the case. I must go on to say that C. B. dismissed the whole matter from his mind, which indeed, as the distance from the Golden Gate of its namesake was measured by hours, became more full of anxiety concerning his helpless charge than ever he had known it before. Then came the arrival, the breaking up of pleasant little coteries such as are formed in a few days on ship-board, and in many cases the parting from people whom you would long to spend your life with but have to part from and usually see no more.
In accordance with a pre-arranged plan C. B. made his friend comfortable and did not worry him until the rest of the passengers were out of the vessel, so that he could take a quiet, unhurried farewell of his friends the officers of the ship. Everybody had gone; none, however, without a hearty handshake and a pleasant word for C. B., many assuring him of what was really true—that they would never forget him, when a shore boat came alongside bearing a man in some sort of a uniform, who as soon as he came aboard inquired for Mr. C. B. Adams. It took some little time for the unaccustomed address to be realized, but at last the message was handed to C. B. and the messenger said with easy nonchalance that he’d wait for an answer. And subsiding into a deck chair produced his toothpick and made himself comfortable.
The missive was brief and businesslike. It ran—
“Private Car Mary A. Stewart waits at the dépôt to receive Captain Taber, Mr. C. B. Adams, and any two friends they may select for through transportation to New Bedford, Massachusetts. All charges are paid through to destination, and all railway men are advised to render any aid or service needed. It is advised that the party start with the least possible delay though no time is fixed. Oliver P. Starbuck, Gen. Mgr.”