When I had finished, and had related how Mother Anastasia had proved to
me that all possible connection between myself and Sylvia Raynor was now
at an end, Walkirk was not nearly so much depressed as I thought he
ought to be. In fact, he endeavored to cheer me, and did not agree with
Mother Anastasia that there was no hope. At this I lost patience.
"Confound it!" I cried, "what you say is not only preposterous, but
unfeeling. I hate this eternal making the best of things, when there is
no best. With me everything is at its worst, and it is cruel to try to
make it appear otherwise."
"I am sorry to annoy you," he said, "but I must insist that to me the
situation does not appear to be without some encouraging features. Let
me tell you what has happened to me since we parted."
I resumed the seat from which I had risen to stride up and down the
room, and Walkirk began his narrative.
"I do not know, sir," he said, "that I ever have been so surprised as
when I went on deck of the grocery boat, a short time before breakfast,
and found that you were not on board. Captain Jabe and his man were
equally astonished, and I should have feared that you had fallen
overboard, if a man, who had come on the boat at a little pier where we
had stopped very early in the morning, had not assured us that he had
seen you go ashore at that place, but had not thought it worth while to
mention so commonplace an occurrence.
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