His ardent, meaning glance made the blood flow in a torrent to her cheeks, but she was saved the necessity of replying, for at that moment she saw a woman's handkerchief waved to him from the shore, and he exclaimed, in an embarrassed tone:
"I see a friend beckoning me. Will you excuse me for a moment?"
He ran hastily down the gang-plank, leaving Geraldine alone on the crowded deck among the good-natured throng of people in the nipping air of the early morning, for the sunshine had not yet pierced the fog that lightly overhung the beautiful Hudson.
But Geraldine did not mind the frosty air, for her dark-blue suit was both warm and becoming, and the merry crowd and the martial music played by the band inspired her to cheerful thoughts.
She passed the minutes so pleasantly in watching the animated faces about her that she did not realize how long Mr. Standish was absent, until suddenly the whistle blew, the gang-plank was drawn up, and the steamer moved away from shore, thrilling the girl with swift alarm over her escort's absence.
She looked about her with a keen, searching gaze, then back to the shore.
A crowd of people were leaving the wharf, but among none of them could she distinguish the stately form of Mr. Standish.
"What had become of her escort?" she asked herself, in terror, wondering if he had willfully deserted her like this.
A choking sob rose up in her pretty throat, and her eyes filled with frightened tears.
She thought, miserably: