Explore "Alone on a Wide Sea, Volume III" by W. Clark Russell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Small is the world of ship board, yet at sea there often happen contrasts in life not less violent and remarkable than those which one meets with in the crowded world ashore. This same day, after my conversation with Alice Lee, I quitted her cabin shortly before the luncheon hour, as she seemed drowsy, and sleep was all important to her whose slumbers were cruelly broken and short throughout the night. Mrs. Lee stole in upon her child, and finding her asleep came to her place by my side at the luncheon table.
The passengers understood that Alice was resting, and the conversation was subdued along the whole line of the table. I said nothing to Mrs. Lee as to what had passed between her daughter and myself. Though the mother knew that her daughter's condition was hopeless, she could not bear any reference to the girl's dying state. That is to say, she would speak of it herself, but with eyes that wistfully sought a contradiction of her fears.