The Tremendous Event. Морис Леблан
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condition, Isabel?"
"Fidelity," she replied, gravely. "Absolute fidelity. No lapses! I could never forgive anything of that sort."
He kissed her hand and said:
"There is no love without fidelity. I love you."
There were few people around them, for the panic had affected mainly the first-class passengers. But, apart from the two lovers, all those who had persisted in crossing betrayed by some sign their secret uneasiness or their alarm. On the right were two old, very old clergymen, accompanied by a third, a good deal younger. These three remained unmoved, worthy brothers of the heroes who sang hymns on the sinking Titanic. Nevertheless, their hands were folded as though in prayer. On the left was the French couple whose conversation Dubosc had overheard. The young father and mother, leaning closely on each other, searched the horizon with fevered eyes. Four boys, the four older children, all strong and robust, their cheeks ruddy with health, were coming and going, in search of information which they immediately brought back with them. A little girl sat crying at her parents' feet, without saying a word. The mother was nursing the sixth child, which from time to time turned to Isabel and smiled at her.
Meanwhile, the breeze was growing colder. Simon leant toward his companion:
"You're not feeling chilly, Isabel?" he said.
"No, I'm used to it. . . ."
"Still, though you left your bag below you brought your rug on deck, very wisely. Why don't you undo it?"
The rug was still rolled up in its straps; and Isabel had even passed one of the straps around an iron rod, which fastened the bench to the deck, and buckled it.
"My bag contains nothing of value," she said.
"Nor the rug, I presume?"
"Yes, it does."
"Really? What?"
"A miniature to which my poor mother was very much attached, because it is a portrait of her grandmother painted for George III."
"It has just a sentimental value, therefore?"
"Oh dear no! My mother had it set in all her finest pearls, which gives it an inestimable value to-day. Thinking of the future, she left me, in this way, a fortune of my own."
Simon laughed:
"And that's the safe!"
"Yes, that's the safe!" she said, joining in his laughter. "The miniature is pinned to the middle of the rug, between the straps where no one would think of looking for it. You're laughing, but I am superstitious where that miniature is concerned. It's a sort of talisman. . . ."
For some time they spoke no further. The coast had disappeared from sight. The swell was increasing and the Queen Mary was rolling a little.
At this moment they were passing a beautiful white yacht.
"That's the Comte de Bauge's Castor," cried one of the four boys. "She's on her way to Dieppe."
Two ladies and two gentlemen were lunching under an awning, Isabel bowed her head so as to hide her face.
This thoughtless movement displeased her; for, a moment later, she said (and all the words which they exchanged during these few minutes were to remain engraved on their memories):
"Simon, you really believe, don't you, that I was entitled to leave home?"
"Why," he exclaimed, in surprise, "don't we love each other?"
"Yes, we love each other," she murmured. "And then there's the life which I was leading with a woman whose one delight was to insult my mother. . . ."
She said no more. Simon had laid his hand on hers and nothing could reassure her more effectually than the fondness of that pressure.
The four boys, who had disappeared again, came running back:
"You can see the company's mail-boat that left Dieppe at the same time that we left Newhaven. She's called the Pays de Caux. We shall pass her in a quarter of an hour. So you see, mama, there's no danger."
"Yes, but it's afterwards, when we get closer to Dieppe."
"Why?" objected her husband. "The other boat hasn't signalled anything extraordinary. The danger is altering its position, moving farther away. . . ."
The mother made no reply. Her face retained the same piteous expression. The little girl at her knee was still silently crying.
The captain passed Simon and saluted.
And a few more minutes elapsed.
Simon was whispering words of love which Isabel did not catch very distinctly. The little girl's constant tears were causing her some distress.
Shortly after, a gust of wind made the waves leap higher. Here and there streaks of white, seething foam appeared. There was nothing remarkable in this, as the wind was gaining in force and lashing the crests of the waves. But why did these foaming billows appear only in one part and that precisely the part which they were about to cross?
The father and mother had risen to their feet. Other passengers were leaning over the rails. The captain was seen running up the poop-steps.
And it came suddenly, in a moment.
Before Isabel and Simon, sitting self-absorbed, had the least idea of what was happening, a frightful clamour, made up of a thousand shrieks, rose from all parts of the boat, from port and starboard, from stem to stern, even from below; from every side, as though the minds of all had been obsessed by the possibility of disaster, as though all eyes, from the moment of departure, had been watching for the slightest premonitory sign.
A monstrous sight. Three hundred yards ahead, as though in the centre of a target at which the bows of the vessel were aimed, a hideous fountain had burst from the surface of the sea, bombarding the sky with masses of rock, blocks of lava and flying masses of spray, which fell back into a circle of foaming breakers and yawning whirlpools. And a wind of hurricane force gyrated above this chaos, bellowing like a bull.
Suddenly silence fell upon the paralysed crowd, the deathly silence that precedes an inevitable catastrophe. Then, yonder, a rattle of thunder that rent the air. Then the voice of the captain at his post, roaring out his orders, trying to shout down the monster's myriad voices.
For a moment there seemed some hope of salvation. The vessel put forth so great an effort that she appeared to be gliding along a tangent away from the infernal circle into which she was on the point of being drawn. But it was a vain hope! The circle seemed to be increasing in size. Its outer waves were approaching. A mass of rock crushed one of the funnels.
And again there were shrieks, followed by a panic and an insane rush for the life-boats; already some of the passengers were fighting for places. . . .
Simon did not hesitate. Isabel was a good swimmer. They must make the attempt.
"Come!" he said. The girl, standing beside him, had flung her arms about him. "We can't stay here! Come!"
And, when she struggled, instinctively resisting the course which he had proposed, he took a firmer hold of her.
She entreated him:
"Oh, it's horrible . . . all these children . . . the little girl crying! . . . Couldn't we save them?"
"Come!" he repeated, in a masterful tone.
She still resisted him. Then he took her head in his two hands and kissed her on the lips:
"Come, my darling, come!"
The girl fainted. He lifted her in his arms and threw one leg over the rail:
"Don't be afraid!" he said. "I will answer for your life!"
"I am not afraid," she said. "I am not afraid with you. . . ."
They leapt into the water.