The Old Flute-Player | Page 6

crowd not one
pair of moustaches stuck straight up beside its owner's nose. Slinking
after him, at a slight distance, but near enough to hear quite all he said,
came M'riar, and, when he had passed on, bought for herself a
third-class ticket to Southampton. Her keen eyes fixed upon the backs
of the two folk with whom, without their knowledge, she had cast her
fortunes, she then went into the train-shed and found a place, at length,
in the next carriage to the one which they had entered. Then she trained
a wary eye out of the window, to make sure they did not change their
minds and slip out and away without her knowledge before the train
departed.
On the arrival in Southampton she waited in the railway carriage till
she saw them started down the platform; then, again, she trailed them.
Two minutes after the Herr Kreutzer had purchased steerage tickets on
the Rochester for far America, M'riar had bought one for herself. When
the German and his daughter reached the shore-end of the
slightly-angled gang-plank leading to the steamer's steerage-deck (close
it was beside the steeper one which led up to the higher and more costly
portions of the ship) she was not far behind them, trailing, watchful,
terrified by the ship's mighty warning whistle which reverberated in the
dock-shed till her teeth were set a-chatter in an agony of fear of the
mere noise.
At this point she nearly lost her self-control and let her quarries see her,
for Herr Kreutzer, in his hurry and excitement, dropped one of his
small hand-bags. Almost she sprang to pick it up for him, through mere
working of her strong instinct to serve him. Indeed, she would have
done so had it not been for a tall and handsome youth.
This young man's eyes, M'riar had been noting, had been closely fixed
upon the lovely face of Anna, doubly lovely, flushed as it now was by
the excitement of the start of a great journey. He sprang forward,
picked up the handbag and presented it to the old German with a frank
good-fellowship of courtesy which took not the least account of the
mere fact that he, himself, was on the point of stepping to the
gang-plank leading to the first-cabin quarters, while Kreutzer,

obviously, was about to seek the steerage-deck. M'riar, with her sharp,
small eyes, noted that the youth, strong, graceful, tall, sun-burned and
distinctly wholesome of appearance, did not look at Kreutzer, as he did
the little service, but at Anna.
"Reg'lar toff!" she muttered, gazing at him with frank admiration, quite
impersonal.
An instant later she saw that when he turned back from the rough,
unpainted gang-plank to the steerage-deck to the more exclusive bridge,
railed, hung with canvas at the sides and carpeted with red, which led to
the first-cabin quarters, a lady seized his arm with a proprietary grasp
and spoke a little crossly to him because he had delayed to do this tiny
service for the pair of steerage passengers.
"Rg'lar cat!" said M'riar, estimating her as quickly as she had appraised
the youth. "She's 'is mother, but she's catty. Dogs 'ud 'ate 'er, Hi'll go
bail."
Her attention was absorbed, then, by the great problem of getting by the
officer who examined steerage-tickets, without being seen by Kreutzer
and his daughter.
"W'ere's yer luggage?" asked the officer.
"Luggage! Huh!" said M'riar. "W'at would Hi want o' luggage? Think
Hi'm a hactress startin' hout hon tour?"
"Tykes six poun' ten to land on t'other side," the officer went on,
suspiciously. "'Yn't got that, nyther, 'ave yer?"
"Betcher bloomink heye Hi gawt it," said M'riar confidently, and
stooped as if she would pull out her wealth to show him, then and there.
"Hin yer stawckin', eh?" the man said grinning.
That which had been in her mouth was spent for ticket, mostly, but a
little still was in her hand. "W'ere'd yer think Hi'd 'ave it?" she asked

scornfully. "Hin me roight hear?" Then she showed him what was in
her fist.
"Garn aboard," the man said, grinning.
"'Yn't I?" she asked briskly, and, seeing that Herr Kreutzer and his
Anna had passed quite out of sight into the ship's mysterious interior,
went up the gang-plank hurriedly, fearing to lose sight of them. She did
not realize that on an impulse she was starting to go a quarter of the
way around the earth. She only knew that love, love irresistible,
supreme, was drawing her to follow where they led. But
notwithstanding that it was pure love which drew her, she told herself,
as she went up the plank: "Hif they ketches me they'll 'eave me
hoverboard an' give me to th' fish, like's not."
Twenty minutes later the great ship was swinging out