The Frozen Deep

Mrs. Crayford, having arranged to follow her husband to the water-side, and see the last of him before he embark

ailor’s sweetheart must accustom herself to partings. The time will soon pass. Good-by, my darling! Good-by, my wife!”He kissed the cold hand; he looked his last — for many a long year, perhaps!— at the pale and beautiful face. “How she loves me!” he thought. “How the parting distresses her!” He still held her hand; he would have lingered longer, if Mrs. Crayford had not wisely waived all ceremony and pushed him away.The two ladies followed him at a safe distance through the crowd, and saw him step into the boat. The oars struck the water; Frank waved his cap to Clara. In a moment more a vessel at anchor hid the boat from view. They had seen the last of him on his way to the Frozen Deep!“No Richard Wardour in the boat,” said Mrs. Crayford. “No Richard Wardour on the shore. Let this be a lesson to you, my dear. Never be foolish enough to believe in presentiments again.”Clara’s eyes still wandered suspiciously to and fro among the crowd.“Are you not satisfied yet?” asked Mrs. Crayford.“No,” Clara answered, “I am not satisfied yet.”“What! still looking for him? This is really too absurd. Here is my husband coming. I shall tell him to call a cab, and send you home.”Clara drew back a few steps.“I won’t be in the way, Lucy, while you are taking leave of your good husband,” she said. “I will wait here.”“Wait here! What for?”“For something which I may yet see; or for something which I may still hear.”“Richard Wardour?”“Richard Wardour.”Mrs. Crayford turned to her husband without another word. Clara’s infatuation was beyond the reach of remonstrance.The boats of the Wanderer took the place at the landing-stage vacated by the boats of the Sea-mew. A burst of cheering among the outer ranks of the crowd announced the arrival of the commander of the expedition on the scene. Captain Helding appeared, looking right and left for his first lieutenant. Finding Crayford with his wife, the captain made his apologies for interfering, with his best grace.“Give him up to his professional duties for one minute, Mrs. Crayford, and you shall have him back again for half an hour. The Arctic expedition is to blame, my dear lady — not the captain — for parting man and wife. In Crayford’s place, I should have left it to the bachelors to find the Northwest Passage, and have stopped at home with you!”Excusing himself in those bluntly complimentary terms, Captain Helding drew the lieutenant aside a few steps, accidentally taking a direction that led the two officers close to the place at which Clara was standing. Both the captain and the lieutenant were too completely absorbed in their professional business to notice her. Neither the one nor the other had the faintest suspicion that she could and did hear every word of the talk that passed between them.“You received my note this morning?” the captain began.“Certainly, Captain Helding, or I should have been on board the ship before this.”“I am going on board myself at once,” the captain proceeded, “but I must ask you to keep your boat waiting for half an hour more. You will be all the longer with your wife, you know. I thought of that, Crayford.”“I am much obliged to you, Captain Helding. I suppose there is some other reason for inverting the customary order of things, and keeping the lieutenant on shore after the captain is on board?”“Quite true! there is another reason. I want you to wait for a volunteer who has just joined us.”“A volunteer!”“Yes. He has his outfit to get in a hurry, and he may be half an hour late.”“It’s rather a sudden appointment, isn’t it?”“No doubt.