"And now you are married!" she said. "Married so splendidly, too! We
heard all about it. Mother was so interested. What a lucky girl you are!
Everybody says your husband is so handsome and charming. He is, isn't
he?"
I was doing my utmost to put the best face upon my condition without
betraying the facts or simulating sentiments which I could not feel,
when a boat from the shore pulled up at the ship's side, and my husband
stepped on to the deck.
In his usual morose manner he was about to pass without speaking on his
way to his state-room, when his eyes fell on Alma sitting beside me.
Then he stopped and looked at us, and, stepping up, he said, in a tone I
had never heard from him before:
"Mary, my dear, will you not present me to your friend?"
I hesitated, and then with a quivering of the lips I did so. But
something told me as I introduced my husband to Alma, and Alma to my
husband, and they stood looking into each other's eyes and holding each
other's hands (for Alma had risen and I was sitting between them), that
this was the most momentous incident of my life thus far--that for good
or ill my hour had struck and I could almost hear the bell.
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