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CHAPTER XL

WHEN Marryat awoke and found that her mistress had really gone, her first anxiety was to examine the little bag which was lying half open on the table of her state-room. To the woman's great relief she discovered that the bulk of the money was still there. She immediately hid the bag in her cabin trunk, and going upstairs began to look around for Kate. All of a sudden she saw, coming across the gangway from a small tender, the well-known figure of Mr. Hume. In one instant Marryat had hidden herself. She went, without a moment's hesitation, down amongst the steerage passengers. A woman came and spoke to her.

"What do you want?" she said. "You belong to the first class; you have nothing to do down here."

"But will you let me stay near you for a bit," answered Marryat, "for the whole of to-day, until we weigh anchor again? I will give you two sovereigns if you'll let me."

Two sovereigns were most valuable to this woman. She did not hesitate for a moment. She took Marryat in the direction of the large cabin, where all the steerage passengers slept, and even lent her a bonnet and shawl.

"For I expect you must be hiding from somebody who is coming on board," said the woman. She looked sharply into the excited face of the lady's- | | 373 maid as she spoke. "Well, he ain't likely to look for you amongst the steerage passengers, and you can wear my bonnet and shawl and look after my baby Nancy, and then no one will suspect you."

"Thank you," answered Marryat. She adopted the role provided for her by the steerage passenger without an instant's hesitation. She spent the long day pretending to nurse Nancy--a fractious baby of sixteen months. From where she sat she could hear the usual bustle on board--people coming and going, the eager voices of friends saying good-bye to friends.

At six in the evening the vessel weighed anchor and steamed away. Then Marryat, paying the good woman who had helped her to hide, returned to her more comfortable place amongst the first-class passengers. She was suddenly met by Captain Staines, the skipper. He raised his brows in astonishment when he saw her.

"You are Miss Marryat, are you not?" he said. Marryat nodded.

"We have been looking for you all day; you are Mrs. Henley's maid?"

"I am, sir."

"Well, Mr. Hume, Mrs. Henley's uncle, has been to see her; he was in a dreadful state and wanted to find her at once, but she was not on board. Was she with you?"

"No, sir; I was down with a friend of mine amongst the steerage."

"Very odd, very odd," said the captain, "where can she be? you are quite certain she is not on board?"

"I think not, sir," replied Marryat demurely, "but I'll go and have a look round."

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"Do so. Mr. Hume was in a terrible state, he wished to bring Mrs. Henley back at once to her husband."

"What! is Mr. Henley alive?" asked Marryat, thrown off her guard for a moment.

"Yes, and likely to live. Where can your mistress be? It was very careless of you to let the whole day go by without endeavouring to find her. You must know more about what she intended to do than any one else."

"I know nothing, I assure you, sir. When I awoke this morning, Mrs. Henley was not in the cabin. I thought she had gone ashore and would be back at any moment. In the meantime I stayed with my friend in the steerage. Perhaps," continued Marryat, after thinking for a moment, "Mrs. Henley will come overland and meet us at Naples."

"Perhaps," answered the captain, "or perhaps," he added, with a look of relief, "she has gone back already to her husband. Mr. Hume has been telling me some of her story; it was strange of her to leave home."

Marryat made no answer to that. The Captain looked at her as if he expected her to say something. She met his eyes for a moment, then remarked in a dubious voice--

"Did it not strike you, sir, that my mistress was a little queer in the head?"

"I cannot say; I did not see enough of your mistress."

"Well, sir, there is no doubt that she was. She was passionately attached to her husband, and when she found that poor Mr. Henley could not recover she got a mania that she must leave the house--it | | 375 was all most strange. I wish I could land, sir, and try and look for her now, but it is quite too late, isn't it?"

"You can land at Naples if you like," answered the captain, "not before." He gave Marryat a glance of no small disapproval, and turned to attend to his other duties.

With a sigh of relief she entered her cabin. Yes, this state cabin, one of the best on board, was hers now, hers for the entire voyage. She had played her game well, she could act the fine lady until she reached Melbourne. Yes, she could do more than that, she could act the fine lady for the remainder of her life, for Kate had left nearly three thousand pounds in that little bag which was now locked away in Marryat's trunk. That money Marryat would keep. With it she could live luxuriously for the rest of her days, for, to a woman in her position, such a sum seemed wealth unlimited. She rubbed her hands softly together.

"I am sorry for Mrs. Henley, poor young lady," she said to herself, "but there, when we do wicked things we must expect to be punished. I should not be a bit surprised if she had gone and drowned herself. It's a rare comfort that I have feathered my own nest though, yes, it's a rare comfort, and there is only one thing now I hate about the whole business, and that is Miss Mary Hume coming into the fortune, for I do loathe and detest Miss Mary Hume right cordially."