The Girl on the Boat - Penn State University

_he_ was a man who always looked on the bright side.
Good-night, Miss Bennett. And good-bye—for ever.”
He turned on his heel and strode across the deck.
From a white heaven the moon still shone benignantly
down, mocking him. He had spoken bravely; the most
captious critic could not but have admitted that he had
made a good exit. But already his heart was aching.
As he drew near to his state-room, he was amazed
and disgusted to hear a high tenor voice raised in song
proceeding from behind the closed door.
“I fee-er naw faw in shee-ining arr-mor,
Though his lance be sharrrp and—er keen;
But I fee-er, I fee-er the glah-mour
<strong>The</strong>rough thy der-rooping lashes seen:
I fee-er, I fee-er the glah-mour ….”
Sam flung open the door wrathfully. That Eustace
Hignett should still be alive was bad—he had pictured
him hurling himself overboard and bobbing about, a
pleasing sight in the wake of the vessel; that he should
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Girl</strong> on the Boat
78
be singing was an outrage. Remorse, Sam felt, should
have stricken Eustace Hignett dumb. Instead of which,
here he was comporting himself like a blasted linnet.
It was all wrong. <strong>The</strong> man could have no conscience
whatever.
“Well,” he said sternly, “so there you are!”
Eustace Hignett looked up brightly, even beamingly.
In the brief interval which had elapsed since Sam had
seen him last, an extraordinary transformation had
taken place in this young man. His wan look had disappeared.
His eyes were bright. His face wore that
beastly self-satisfied smirk which you see in pictures
advertising certain makes of fine-mesh underwear. If
Eustace Hignett had been a full-page drawing in a
magazine with “My dear fellow, I always wear Sigsbee’s
Super-fine Featherweight!” printed underneath him, he
could not have looked more pleased with himself.
“Hullo!” he said. “I was wondering where you had got to.”
“Never mind,” said Sam coldly, “where I had got to!
Where did you get to and why? You poor, miserable
worm,” he went on in a burst of generous indignation,