Page:In a Steamer Chair and Other Stories.djvu/100

88 low voice. "It seems as if a person could see weird shapes arising in the air, as if in torment."

The young man said nothing for a few moments. He cleared his throat several times as if to speak, but still remained silent. Miss Earle gazed down at the restless, luminous water. The throb, throb of the great ship made the bulwarks on which their arms rested tremble and quiver.

Finally Morris seemed to muster up courage enough to begin, and he said one word:

"Katherine." As he said this he placed his hand on hers as it lay white before him in the darkness upon the trembling bulwark. It seemed to him that she made a motion to withdraw her hand, and then allowed it to remain where it was.

"Katherine," he continued, in a voice that he hardly recognized as his own, "we have known each other only a very short time comparatively; but, as I think I said to you once before, a day on ship board may be as long as a month on shore. Katherine, I want to ask you a question, and yet I do not know&mdash;I cannot find&mdash;I&mdash;I don't know what words to use."

The young lady turned her face toward him, and he saw her clear-cut profile sharply outlined against the glowing water as he looked down at her. Although the young man struggled against the