FORTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
From that hour forward my husband was a changed man. His manner to me,
so brusque before, became courteous, kind, almost affectionate. Every
morning he would knock at the door of my state-room to ask if I had
slept well, or if the movement of the steamer had disturbed me.
His manner to Alma was charming. He was up before breakfast every day,
promenading the deck with her in the fresh salt air. I would slide back
my window and hear their laughter as they passed, above the throb of the
engines and the wash of the sea. Sometimes they would look in upon me
and joke, and Alma would say:
"And how's Margaret Mary this morning?"
Our seats in the saloon had been changed. Now we sat with Alma at the
Captain's table, and though I sorely missed the doctor's racy talk about
Martin Conrad I was charmed by Alma's bright wit and the fund of her
personal anecdotes. She seemed to know nearly everybody. My husband knew
everybody also, and their conversation never flagged.
Something of the wonderful and worshipful feeling I had had for Alma at
the Sacred Heart came back to me, and as for my husband it seemed to me
that I was seeing him for the first time.
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