II.5. The Great De Barral
Renovated certainly the saloon of the Ferndale was to receive the "strange woman."
The mellowness of its old-fashioned, tarnished decoration was gone. And Anthony
looking round saw the glitter, the gleams, the colour of new things, untried, unused, very
bright--too bright. The workmen had gone only last night; and the last piece of work they
did was the hanging of the heavy curtains which looped midway the length of the
saloon--divided it in two if released, cutting off the after end with its companion-way
leading direct on the poop, from the forepart with its outlet on the deck; making a
privacy within a privacy, as though Captain Anthony could not place obstacles enough
between his new happiness and the men who shared his life at sea. He inspected that
arrangement with an approving eye then made a particular visitation of the whole,
ending by opening a door which led into a large stateroom made of two knocked into
one. It was very well furnished and had, instead of the usual bedplace of such cabins,
an elaborate swinging cot of the latest pattern. Anthony tilted it a little by way of trial.
"The old man will be very comfortable in here," he said to himself, and stepped back
into the saloon closing the door gently. Then another thought occurred to him obvious
under the circumstances but strangely enough presenting itself for the first time. "Jove!
Won't he get a shock," thought Roderick Anthony.
He went hastily on deck. "Mr. Franklin, Mr. Franklin." The mate was not very far. "Oh!
Here you are. Miss . . . Mrs. Anthony'll be coming on board presently. Just give me a
call when you see the cab."
Then, without noticing the gloominess of the mate's countenance he went in again. Not
a friendly word, not a professional remark, or a small joke, not as much as a simple and
inane "fine day." Nothing. Just turned about and went in.
We know that, when the moment came, he thought better of it and decided to meet
Flora's father in that privacy of the main cabin which he had been so careful to arrange.
Why Anthony appeared to shrink from the contact, he who was sufficiently self-confident
not only to face but to absolutely create a situation almost insane in its audacious
generosity, is difficult to explain. Perhaps when he came on the poop for a glance he
found that man so different outwardly from what he expected that he decided to meet
him for the first time out of everybody's sight. Possibly the general secrecy of his
relation to the girl might have influenced him. Truly he may well have been dismayed.
That man's coming brought him face to face with the necessity to speak and act a lie; to
appear what he was not and what he could never be, unless, unless -
In short, we'll say if you like that for various reasons, all having to do with the delicate
rectitude of his nature, Roderick Anthony (a man of whom his chief mate used to say:
he doesn't know what fear is) was frightened. There is a Nemesis which overtakes
generosity too, like all the other imprudences of men who dare to be lawless and proud .
. . "
