In the Roaring Fifties

that she would insist upon expressing lifelong gratitude with the usual effu

the forecastle, but, as a rule, quite alone, muffled in a dark, hooded cloak, watching the sea, always with her face turned yearningly back, as if England and home lay straight out al

was not believed by one of his shipmates, since he was instinctively careful to betray no concern. He had been struck by the girl's apparent loneliness. The attentions of the blonde youth were borne me

ould reflect the suspicions and animosities of his little village if it were known among them that one of his blood had done murder, and had suffered as a murderer. But no whisper of his story reached his ears, and he remained perplexed. He had yet to learn that society in all its phases is ever intensely suspicious of the man apart. His one desire had been that he might be lost amongst the passengers, that he might efface himself in the crowd by keeping carefully out of every man's way

assment, and Jim's stoicism was wholly misconstrued. He did not seem to see things that would have caused others in the company to fill the ship with bad language and dread of death; he was impervious to rhyme

selecting the one whose laugh was loudest and most hearty, he struck him an open-handed blow that drove him like a log along the floor. There was li

f comment to offer after the first round. The men gazed at Done with a ludicrous expression of stupid reproach. He had deceived, betrayed them; he had

ing straight before him, with one sad, meditative eye, and anothe

n!' urged Ph

he gave no indicati

' The second prompt

?' said the

e a man! Get u

ever goin' to get up agin till you put

licked, t

but there's wan thing about Phil Ryan, he's open to conviction

?' said the second, wi

n would like to resoom th' argumint where I dthropped it.'

re played upon the Hermit. The cynics and the wits developed a pronouncedly serious vein, and it was resolved that for the

Ryan, tenderly caressing his inflated eye, 'an' a

for by most romantic imaginings, for it is a cardinal belief amongst men of their class that the true fighter is superior to all little weaknesses and small motives. When the

the slim, dark figure faced h

she said in a voice l

e answer

deeply agitated. Her head was bent, hiding her face from his eyes; and he not

inued; 'you risked your own.

words quite eloquent, but Jim scarcely heeded them; he was ter

ays that in gratitude for a mere politeness. B

ore about it. I'm glad to have helped you; but the risk I t

face and looked

r you at this moment my poor body-' She sobbed and turned to the sea, with something of it

d; and he felt more deeply at that mo

o the sea, and he noticed presently that she was weeping, and was sile

e?' she asked in a

onder, and repeated the

hy? You had

. I don't know why I jumped over. My next conscious action wa

e was very low, but instinct

sly, he spoke in the soothing tone

t fall ov

what ha

yself into

wished

e-to be rid of my wr

He, too, had often thought of self-slaughter in an abstract way as the final defiance; but here was a mere girl for whom life held so little t

thanking me just no

took hold of me and swept me under I wished to live-I had a wild yearning for life. Many times since last night I have felt the water sucking me down and the mighty waves piling above me, and have felt again the utter helples

h her tears, already wondering at the sudden, overwhelming emotion that had swept her into this betrayal. He mused in a

een so unhappy,

py,' she replied in

hap

heir only child; I found myself alone, beset with anxieties and terrors, utterly desolate. I am going to be Mrs. Macdougal's companion at her husband's sheep-run, deep in the Australian Bush, and to teach their children. Since coming aboard I have been too much

gently, 'I'll

every emotion-deserted him. He had been, in his small circle in Chisley, the one person with a tangible grievance against life, but here he found another at more bitter variance with Fate, and weaker

e for inflicting my troubles upon you.' Jim noted the conventional phrases with a feeling of uneasines

ust me to s

ly, 'but I want you to forget. I should not l

t you did you have to a

he girl went on in a low voice. 'I have been a little h

and I've never been interested in the fate of

t of God. You have saved

interfere, you spoke the truth. No man has the right to insist upon a fellow-creature c

I have thought it too; but the though

d a plan of life as precise and logical as the multiplication table

liness that terrified me. I thought it might be always so, but pe

nt with touching wistfulness, as if he had been a graybeard and an old and trusted

ppeal, and tr

s fight the world. If we can't be loved, we can ma

his warmth, and a little s

terrible to be feared-to meet always with doubt and s

when it uses all our fine emotions as sc

some agitation, and raised two tremulous

sentment as applied to her case, it was not in his nature to preach the pleasing gospel of sentimental optimism. He had no words of comfort to offer her; the gentle

with open hearts, and give a warm welcome to their affection and confidence. There must be something evil in the nature that is shut out from human sympathy, human fellowship-something wanting in the heart that is lone

, moving to the side, stood with her eyes turned yearningly back over the sea, oppressed by her lon

ps justification of them, and saw her for the moment as the embodiment of the respectability, the piety, and all the narrowness of Chisley. The thou