When I took my seat
at the table of which I was the head, my steward handed to me a slip of
paper, saying that the chief steward had given a new passenger, a lady,
the seat at my right hand, which had been vacated at Colombo. The name on
the paper was "Mrs. Falchion." The seat was still empty, and I wondered
if this was the beautiful passenger who had attracted me and interested
the Intermediate Passenger. I was selfish enough to wish so: and it was
so.
We had finished the soup before she entered. The chief steward, with that
anxious civility which beauty can inspire in even so great a personage,
conducted her to her seat beside me. I confess that though I was at once
absorbed in this occurrence, I noticed also that some of the ladies
present smiled significantly when they saw at whose table Mrs. Falchion
was placed, and looked not a little ironically at the purser, who, as it
was known, always tried to get for his table the newest addition to the
passenger list--when it was a pretty woman. I believe that one or two
rude people chaffed the chief steward about "favouring the doctor"; but
he had a habit of saying uncomfortable things in a deferential way, and
they did not pursue the subject.
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