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The Shuttle Chapter 8 - The Second Class Passenger · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER VIII. THE SECOND-CLASS PASSENGER Up to a certain point
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  Speaker 1: the voyage was like all other voyages. During the first
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  Speaker 1: two days there were passengers who did not appear on deck,
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  Speaker 1: but as the weather was fair for the season of
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  Speaker 1: the year there were fewer absentees than is usual. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: on the third day the deck-chairs were all filled, People
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  Speaker 1: who were given to tramping during their voyages had begun
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  Speaker 1: to walk their customary quota of carefully measured miles the day.
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  Speaker 1: There were a few pale faces dozing here and there,
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  Speaker 1: but the general aspect of things had begun to be sprightly.
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  Speaker 1: The shuffleboard players and coit enthusiasts began to bestir themselves,
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  Speaker 1: the deck steward appeared regularly with light repasts of beef
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  Speaker 1: tea and biscuits, and the brilliant hues of red, blue
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  Speaker 1: or yellow novels made frequent spots of colour upon the promenade.
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  Speaker 1: Persons of some initiative went to the length of making
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  Speaker 1: tentative observations to their next-chair neighbours. The second-cabin passengers were cheerful,
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  Speaker 1: and the steerage passengers, having tumbled up, formed friendly groups
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  Speaker 1: and began to joke with each other. The Worthingtons had
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  Speaker 1: plainly the good fortune to be respectable sailors. They reappeared
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  Speaker 1: on the second day in established regular habits, after the
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  Speaker 1: manner of accustomed travellers. Miss Vanderpool's habits were regular from
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  Speaker 1: the first— and when Salter saw her he was impressed
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  Speaker 1: even more at the outset with her air of being
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  Speaker 1: at home instead of on board ship. Her practically well-chosen
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  Speaker 1: corner was an agreeable place to look at. Her chair
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  Speaker 1: was built for ease of angle and width, her cushions
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  Speaker 1: were of dark rich colours, her travelling rugs were of
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  Speaker 1: black fox fur, and she owned an adjustable table for
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  Speaker 1: books and accompaniments. She appeared early in the morning and
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  Speaker 1: walked until the sea air crimsoned her cheeks. She sat
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  Speaker 1: and read with evident enjoyment. she talked to her companions
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  Speaker 1: and plainly entertained them. Salter, being bored and in bad spirits,
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  Speaker 1: found himself watching her rather often, but he knew that
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  Speaker 1: but for the small comic episode of Tommy he would
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  Speaker 1: have definitely disliked her. The dislike would not have been fair,
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  Speaker 1: but it would have existed in spite of himself. It
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  Speaker 1: would not have been fair because it would have been
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  Speaker 1: founded simply upon the ignoble resentment of envy, upon the
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  Speaker 1: poor truth that he was not in the state of
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  Speaker 1: mind to avoid resenting the injustice of fate in bestowing
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  Speaker 1: multi-millions upon one person and his offspring. He resented his
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  Speaker 1: own resentment, but was obliged to acknowledge its existence in
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  Speaker 1: his humour. He himself, especially and peculiarly, had always known
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  Speaker 1: the bitterness of poverty, the humiliation of seeing where money
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  Speaker 1: could be well used, indeed ought to be used, and
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  Speaker 1: at the same time having ground into him the fact
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  Speaker 1: that there was no money to lay one's hand on.
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  Speaker 1: He had hated it even as a boy, because in
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  Speaker 1: his case, and that of his people, the whole thing
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  Speaker 1: was undignified and unbecoming. It was humiliating to him now
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  Speaker 1: to bring home to himself the fact that the thing
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  Speaker 1: for which he was inclined to dislike this tall, upstanding
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  Speaker 1: girl was her unconscious— he realised the unconsciousness of it— air
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  Speaker 1: of having always lived in the atmosphere of millions, of
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  Speaker 1: never having known a reason why she should not have
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  Speaker 1: anything she had a desire for. Perhaps, upon the whole,
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  Speaker 1: he said to himself— It was his own ill-luck and
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  Speaker 1: sense of defeat which made her corner, with its cushions
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  Speaker 1: and comforts her properly attentive maid, and her cold-weather sables
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  Speaker 1: expressive of a fortune too colossal to be decent. The
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  Speaker 1: episode of the plump, despairing Tommy he had liked, however.
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  Speaker 1: There had been a fine naturalness about it, and a
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  Speaker 1: fine practicalness in her prompt order to the elderly nurse
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  Speaker 1: that the richly-comparisoned donkey should be sent to her. This
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  Speaker 1: had at once made it clear to the donor— that
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  Speaker 1: his gift was too valuable to be left behind.' She
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  Speaker 1: didn't care tuppence for the lot of us,' was his
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  Speaker 1: summing up.' She might have been nothing but the nicest
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  Speaker 1: possible warm-hearted nursemaid, or a cottage-woman who loved the child.'
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  Speaker 1: He was quite aware that though he had found himself
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  Speaker 1: more than once observing her, she herself had probably not
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  Speaker 1: recognised the trivial fact of his existing upon that other
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  Speaker 1: side of the barrier which separated the higher grade of
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  Speaker 1: passenger from the lower.' There was indeed no reason why
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  Speaker 1: she should have singled him out for observation, and she was,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, too frequently absorbed in her own reflections to
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  Speaker 1: be in the frame of mind to remark her fellow-passengers
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  Speaker 1: to the extent which was generally customary with her. During
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  Speaker 1: her crossings of the Atlantic she usually made mental observations
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  Speaker 1: of the people on board. This time, when she was
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  Speaker 1: not talking to the Worthingtons or reading, she was thinking
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  Speaker 1: of the possibilities of her visit to Stornham. She used
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  Speaker 1: to walk about the deck thinking of them, and sitting
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  Speaker 1: in her chair sum them up as her eyes rested
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  Speaker 1: on the rolling and breaking waves. There were many things
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  Speaker 1: to be considered, and one of the first was the
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  Speaker 1: perfectly sane suggestion her father had made. Suppose she does
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  Speaker 1: not want to be rescued, suppose you find her a
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  Speaker 1: comfortable fine lady who adores her husband. Such a thing
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  Speaker 1: was possible, though Bettina did not think it probable. She intended, however,
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  Speaker 1: to prepare herself even for this. If she found Lady Anstruthers,
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  Speaker 1: Plump and Rosiette, Pleased with herself and her position, she
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  Speaker 1: was quite equal to making her visit appear a casual
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  Speaker 1: and conventional affair.' I ought to wish it to be so,'
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  Speaker 1: she thought, and yet how disappointingly I should feel she
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  Speaker 1: had changed. Still, even ethical reasons would not excuse one
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  Speaker 1: for wishing her to be miserable. She was a creature
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  Speaker 1: with a number of passionate ideals which warred frequently with
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  Speaker 1: the practical side of her mentality.' Often she used to
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  Speaker 1: walk up and down the deck or lean upon the
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  Speaker 1: ship's side, her eyes stormy with emotions. I do not
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  Speaker 1: want to find Rosie a heartless woman, and I do
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  Speaker 1: not want to find her wretched. What do I want?
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  Speaker 1: Only the usual thing, that what cannot be undone had
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  Speaker 1: never been done. People are always wishing that. She was
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  Speaker 1: standing near the second cabin barrier thinking this the first
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  Speaker 1: time she saw the passenger with the red hair. She
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  Speaker 1: had paused by mere chance, and while her eyes were
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  Speaker 1: stormy with her thought, she suddenly became conscious that she
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  Speaker 1: was looking directly into other eyes as darkling as her own.
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  Speaker 1: They were those of a man on the wrong side
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  Speaker 1: of the barrier. He had a troubled, brooding face, and
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  Speaker 1: as their gaze met, each of them started slightly and
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  Speaker 1: turned away, with the sense of having unconsciously intruded, and
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  Speaker 1: having been intruded upon. That rough-looking man, she commented to herself,
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  Speaker 1: is as anxious and disturbed as I am. Salter did
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  Speaker 1: look rough, it was true. His well-worn clothes had suffered
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  Speaker 1: somewhat from the restrictions of a second-class cabin shared with
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  Speaker 1: two other men, but the aspect which had presented itself
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  Speaker 1: to her brief glance had been not so much roughness
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  Speaker 1: of clothing as of mood expressing itself in his countenance.
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  Speaker 1: He was thinking harshly and angrily of the life ahead
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  Speaker 1: of him. These looks of theirs which had so inadvertently
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  Speaker 1: encountered each other were of that order which sometimes startles
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  Speaker 1: one when in passing a stranger one finds one's eyes
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  Speaker 1: entangled for a second in his or hers, as the
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  Speaker 1: case may be. At such times it seems for that
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  Speaker 1: instant difficult to disentangle one's gaze. But neither of these
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  Speaker 1: two thought of the other much after hurrying away. Each
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  Speaker 1: was too fully mastered by personal mood. There would indeed
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  Speaker 1: have been no reason for their encountering each other further
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  Speaker 1: but for the accident, as it was called when spoken
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  Speaker 1: of afterwards. The accident, which might so easily have been
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  Speaker 1: a catastrophe, It occurred that night. This was two nights
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  Speaker 1: before they were to land. Everybody had begun to come
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  Speaker 1: under the influence of that cheerfulness of humour, the sense
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  Speaker 1: of relief bordering on gaiety, which generally elates people when
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  Speaker 1: a voyage is drawing to a close. If one has
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  Speaker 1: been dull, one begins to gather oneself together, rejoiced that
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  Speaker 1: the boredom is over. In any case, there are plans
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  Speaker 1: to be made, thought of, or discussed.' You wish to
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  Speaker 1: go to Stornham at once?' Mrs. Worthington said to Bettina.'
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  Speaker 1: how pleased lady anstruthers and sir nigel must be at
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  Speaker 1: the idea of seeing you with them after so long
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  Speaker 1: i can scarcely tell you how i am looking forward
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  Speaker 1: to it betty answered she sat in her corner among
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  Speaker 1: her cushions looking at the dark water which seemed to
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  Speaker 1: sweep past the ship and listening to the throb of
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  Speaker 1: the engines she was not gay she was wondering how
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  Speaker 1: far the plan she had made would prove feasible mrs
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  Speaker 1: worthington was not aware that her visit to stornham court
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  Speaker 1: was to be unannounced It had not been necessary to
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  Speaker 1: explain the matter. The whole affair was simple and decorous enough.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool was to bid good-bye to her friends and
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  Speaker 1: go at once to her sister, Lady Anstruthers, whose husband's
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  Speaker 1: country seat was but a short journey from London. Bettina
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  Speaker 1: and her father had arranged that the fact should be
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  Speaker 1: kept from the society paragraphist. This had required some adroit management,
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  Speaker 1: but had actually been accomplished. As the waves swished past her,
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  Speaker 1: Bettina was saying to herself— What will Rosie say when
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  Speaker 1: she sees me? What shall I say when I see Rosie?
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  Speaker 1: We are drawing nearer to each other with every wave
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  Speaker 1: that passes.' A fog which swept up suddenly sent them
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  Speaker 1: all below rather early. The Worthingtons laughed and talked a
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  Speaker 1: little in their staterooms, but presently became quiet and had
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  Speaker 1: evidently gone to bed. Bettina was restless and moved about
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  Speaker 1: her room alone after she had sent away her maid.
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  Speaker 1: She at last sat down and finished a letter she
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  Speaker 1: had been writing to her father.' As I neared the land,'
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  Speaker 1: she wrote, I feel a sort of excitement. Several times
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  Speaker 1: today I have recalled so distinctly the picture of Rosie
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  Speaker 1: as I saw her last, when we all stood crowded
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  Speaker 1: upon the wharf at New York to see her off.
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  Speaker 1: She and Nigel were leaning upon the rail of the
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  Speaker 1: upper deck. She looked such a delicate, airy little creature,
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  Speaker 1: quite like a pretty schoolgirl with tears in her eyes.
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  Speaker 1: She was laughing and crying at the same time, and
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  Speaker 1: kissing both her hands to us again and again. I
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  Speaker 1: was crying passionately myself, though I tried to conceal the fact.
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  Speaker 1: and I remember that each time I looked from Rosie
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  Speaker 1: to Nigel's heavy face, the poignancy of my anguish made
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  Speaker 1: me break forth again. I wonder if it was because
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  Speaker 1: I was a child that he looked such a contemptuous
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  Speaker 1: brute even when he pretended to smile. It's twelve years
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  Speaker 1: since then. I wonder how I wonder what I shall find.
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  Speaker 1: She stopped writing and sat a few moments, her chin
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  Speaker 1: upon her hand, thinking. Suddenly she sprang to her feet
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  Speaker 1: in alarm. The stillness of the night was broken by
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  Speaker 1: wild shouts, a running of feet outside, a tumult of
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  Speaker 1: mingled sounds and motion, a dash and rush of surging water,
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  Speaker 1: a strange thumping and straining of engines, and a moment
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  Speaker 1: later she was hurled from one side of her stateroom
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  Speaker 1: to the other by a crashing shock which seemed to
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  Speaker 1: heave the ship out of the sea, shuddering as if
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  Speaker 1: the end of all things had come. It was so
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  Speaker 1: sudden and horrible a thing that though she had only
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  Speaker 1: been flung upon a pile of rugs and cushions and
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  Speaker 1: was unhurt, she felt as if she had been struck
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  Speaker 1: on the head and plunged into wild delirium. Above the
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  Speaker 1: sound of the dashing and rocking waves, the straining and
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  Speaker 1: roaring of hacking engines, and the pandemonium of voices, rose
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  Speaker 1: from one end of the ship to the other one wild, despairing,
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  Speaker 1: long-drawn shriek of women and children. Bettina turned sick at
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  Speaker 1: the mad terror in it, the insensate, awful horror.' Something
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  Speaker 1: has run into us,' she gasped, getting up with her
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  Speaker 1: heart leaping in her throat. She could hear the Worthington's
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  Speaker 1: tempest of terrified confusion through the partitions between them, and
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  Speaker 1: she remembered afterwards that in the space of two or
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  Speaker 1: three seconds, and in the midst of their clamour, a
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  Speaker 1: hundred incongruous thoughts leapt through her brain. Perhaps they were
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  Speaker 1: this moment going down, now she knew what it was like,
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  Speaker 1: this thing she had read of in newspapers, now she
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  Speaker 1: was going down in mid-ocean, she, Betty Vanderpool.' and as
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  Speaker 1: she sprung to clutch her fur coat there flashed before
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  Speaker 1: her mental vision a gruesome picture of the headlines in
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  Speaker 1: the newspapers and the inevitable reference to the millions she represented.'
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  Speaker 1: I must keep calm,' she heard herself say as she
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  Speaker 1: fastened the long coat, clenching her teeth to keep them
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  Speaker 1: from chattering.' Poor Daddy! Poor Daddy!' Maddening new sounds were
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  Speaker 1: all about her, sounds of water dashing and churning, sounds
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  Speaker 1: of voices bellowing out commands, straining and leaping sounds of
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  Speaker 1: the engines— What was it? What was it? She must
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  Speaker 1: at least find out. Everybody was going mad in the staterooms.
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  Speaker 1: The stewards were rushing about, trying to quiet people, their
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  Speaker 1: own voices shaking and breaking into cracked notes. If the
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  Speaker 1: worst had happened, everyone would be fighting for life in
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes. Out on deck she must get, and
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  Speaker 1: find out for herself what the worst was. She was
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  Speaker 1: the first woman outside, though the wails and shrieks swelled below,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and half-dressed ghastly creatures tumbled gasping up the companion-way.' What
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  Speaker 1: is it?' she heard.' My God, what's happened? Where's the captain?
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  Speaker 1: Are we going down? The boats, the boats!' It was
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  Speaker 1: useless to speak to the seamen rushing by. They did
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  Speaker 1: not see, much less hear. She caught sight of a
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  Speaker 1: man who could not be a sailor, since he was
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  Speaker 1: standing still. She made her way to him, thankful that
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  Speaker 1: she had managed to stop her teeth chattering.' What has
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  Speaker 1: happened to us?' she said. He turned and looked at
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  Speaker 1: her straightly. He was the second cabin passenger with the
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  Speaker 1: red hair.'' A tramp-steamer has run into us in the fog,'
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  Speaker 1: he answered.' How much horror is done?' They' re trying to
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  Speaker 1: find out.' I' m standing here on the chance of hearing something.'
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  Speaker 1: It' s madness to ask any man questions.'' They spoke to
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  Speaker 1: each other in short, sharp sentences,' knowing there was no
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  Speaker 1: time to lose.' Are you horribly frightened?' he asked.' She
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  Speaker 1: stamped her foot.' I hate it, I hate it,' she said,'
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: flinging out her hand toward the black heaving water.' The plunge,
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  Speaker 1: the choking—' No one could hate it more. But I
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  Speaker 1: want to do something.' She was turning away when he
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  Speaker 1: caught her hand and held her.' Wait a second,' he said.'
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  Speaker 1: I hate it as much as you do, but I
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  Speaker 1: believe we two can keep our heads. Those who can
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  Speaker 1: do that may help, perhaps. Let us try to quiet
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  Speaker 1: the people. As soon as I find out anything I
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  Speaker 1: will come to your friend's stateroom. You are near the
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  Speaker 1: boats there. Then I shall go back to the second cabin.
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  Speaker 1: You work on your side and I'll work on mine.
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  Speaker 1: That's all.'' Thank you.' Tell the Worthingtons I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: the saloon deck.' She was off as she spoke. Upon
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  Speaker 1: the stairway she found herself in the midst of a struggling,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: panic-stricken mob, tripping over each other on the steps and
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  Speaker 1: clutching at any garment nearest to drag themselves up as
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  Speaker 1: they fell or were on the point of falling. Everyone
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  Speaker 1: was crying out in question and appeal. Bettina stood still,
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  Speaker 1: a firm, tall obstacle, and clutched at the hysteric woman
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  Speaker 1: who was hurled against her.' I' ve been on deck,' she said.
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  Speaker 1: A tramp-steamer has run into us. No one has time
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  Speaker 1: to answer questions. The first thing to do is to
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  Speaker 1: put on warm clothes and secure the life-belts in case
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you need them.' At once everyone turned upon her as
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  Speaker 1: if she was an authority. She replied with almost fierce
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  Speaker 1: determination to the torrent of words poured forth,' I know
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  Speaker 1: nothing further, only that if one is not a fool
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  Speaker 1: one must make sure of clothes and belts.'' Quite right,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Vanderpool,' said one young man, touching his cap in
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  Speaker 1: nervous propitiation.' Stop screaming,' Betty said mercilessly to the woman.'
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  Speaker 1: It' s idiotic. The more noise you make, the less chance
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  Speaker 1: you have. How can men keep their wits among a
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  Speaker 1: mob of shrieking mad women?' That the remote Miss Vanderpool
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: should have emerged from her luxurious corner to frankly bully
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the lot of them was an excellent shock for the crowd.
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  Speaker 1: Men who had been in danger of losing their heads
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  Speaker 1: and becoming as uncontrolled as the women suddenly realised the
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: fact and pulled themselves together.' Bettina made her way at
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: once to the Worthington staterooms. There she found frenzy reigning.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Blanche and Mari Worthington were darting to and fro, dragging
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  Speaker 1: about first one thing and then another. They were silly
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: with fright and dashed at and dropped alternately life-belts, shoes,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: jewel-cases and wraps, while they sobbed and cried out hysterically,' Oh,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: what shall we do with mother? What shall we do?'
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: The manners of Betty Vanderpool's sharp schoolgirl days returned to
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  Speaker 1: her in full force. She seized Blanche by the shoulder
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  Speaker 1: and shook her.' What a donkey you are,' she said.'
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  Speaker 1: Put on your clothes. There they are.' Putting her to
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  Speaker 1: a place where they hung.' Mari, dredge yourself this moment.
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  Speaker 1: We may be in no real danger at all.'' Do
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  Speaker 1: you think not? Oh, Betty!' they wailed in concert.' Oh,
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  Speaker 1: what shall we do with mother?'' Where is your mother?'
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  Speaker 1: She fainted.' Louise—' Betty was in Mrs. Worthington's cabin before
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  Speaker 1: they had finished speaking. The poor woman had fainted and
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: struck her cheek against a chair. She lay on the
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  Speaker 1: floor in her nightgown, with blood trickling from a cut
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  Speaker 1: on her face. Her maid Louise was wringing her hands
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  Speaker 1: and doing nothing whatever.' If you don't bring the brandy
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  Speaker 1: this minute,' said the beautiful Miss Vanderpool,' I' ll box your ears.
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  Speaker 1: Believe me, my girl.' She looked so capable of doing
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  Speaker 1: it that the woman was startled and actually offended into
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  Speaker 1: a return of her senses. Miss Vanderpool had usually the
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  Speaker 1: best possible manners in dealing with her inferiors. Betty poured
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  Speaker 1: brandy down Mrs. Worthington's throat and applied strong smelling salts
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  Speaker 1: until she gasped back to consciousness. She had just burst
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: into frightened sobs when Betty heard confusion and exclamations in
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the adjoining room. Blanche and Murray had cried out, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: a man's voice was speaking. Betty went to them. They
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: were in various stages of undress, and the red-haired second-cabin
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  Speaker 1: passenger was standing at the door.' I promised Miss Vanderpool,'
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: he was saying, when Betty came forward. He turned to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: her promptly.' I came to tell you that it seems
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: absolutely to be relied on that there is no immediate danger.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: The tramp is more injured than we are.'' Oh, are
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: you sure, are you sure?' panted Blanche, catching at his sleeve.' Yes,'
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: he answered.' Can I do anything for you?' he said
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to Bettina, who was on the point of speaking.' Will
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: you be good enough to help me to assist Mrs.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Worthington into her birth, and then try to find the doctor?'
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: He went into the next room without speaking. To Mrs.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Worthington he spoke briefly a few words of reassurance. He
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: was a powerful man, and laid her on her berth
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: without dragging her about uncomfortably, or making her feel that
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: her weight was greater than even in her most desponding
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: moments she had suspected. Even her helplessly hysteric mood was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: illuminated by a ray of grateful appreciation.' Oh, thank you,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: thank you,' she murmured.' Are you quite sure there is
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: no actual danger, Mr—'' Salter,' he terminated for her,' you
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: may feel safe. The damage is really only slight after all.''
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: It is so good of you to come and tell us,'
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: said the poor lady, still tremulous.' The shock was awful.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Our introduction has been an alarming one. I don't think
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: we have met during the voyage.'' No,' replied Salter,' I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: am in the second cabin.'' Oh, thank you. It's so
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: good of you,' she faltered amiably, for want of inspiration.'
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: As he went out of the stateroom, Salter spoke to Bettina.'
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I will send for the doctor if I can find him,'
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: he said.' I think perhaps you had better take some
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: brandy yourself. I shall.'' It' s queer how little one seems
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to realise, even, that there are second-cabin passengers,' commented Mrs.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Worthington feebly.' That was a nice man, and perfectly respectable.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: He even had a kind of— of manner.' End of Chapter
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: 8 Thank you.