"I am tired of listening to that bird", she said.
Philip bent over her, his face solicitous.
"Shall I take him away?"
"No, no. But give him a fig. That will quiet him. They are in the tin box in the cupboard". She stared at him as he obeyed her. Then she laughed weakly. "How funny you look! As though you hadn’t shaved for days!"
"Neither I have".
"Have I been very ill?"
"Pretty bad".
"I’m better now".
"Thank God for that!"
The parrot sidled along the perch to meet the fig. He accepted it with a humorous expression, then began tearing small pieces from it and spitting them out. But it kept him quiet.
Philip sat down on the edge of the berth and Adeline took one of his strong brown hands in her thin white hands and stroked it. She pressed her teeth against her quivering under-lip.
"I was just remembering Huneefa", she said.
He kissed her. "You must not think of anything unhappy", he said. "Just think of getting well".
"We shouldn’t have brought her from India".
"She wanted to come. She would have been broken-hearted if we’d left her".
"I know".
She was undoubtedly better. She drank some broth and would have slept but Augusta was beating on her tin plate. The noise excited Boney. He began to scream. Adeline tossed on her lumpy pillow and filled her hands with her long hair.
"Is there no peace on this ship?" she cried. "Whatever is that noise?"
Philip went to Gussie and took the plate and spoon from her and gave her the bag of shells in their stead, but she threw these to the floor one by one and then set up a lugubrious crying.
Philip decided he would take her to Wilmott and ask him to amuse her for an hour. He strode back to where she sat with streaming eyes tight shut, mouth square and everything within reach hurled as far as her tiny strength would allow. He picked her up not very gently. He discovered by the dampness of her under-things that a change was imperative. He rang the bell furiously for the stewardess. There was no answer. From the confused heap that now constituted her wardrobe he extricated two garments. Laying her across his knees he managed to put the diaper on her but the white flannel petticoat which had been washed by the stewardess, and extraordinarily shrunken, baffled him. Tired of lying with her head hanging downward, Gussie had begun to squirm. She had ceased to cry on being taken up but now she began again. Sooner would he have set out to subdue a rebellious hill tribe than this squalling little creature. He saw that her legs were red and chafed and he swore.
At the next instant he pricked her with the safety-pin-why the devil had it been named safety-pin! — and at the sight of blood trickling from the tiny wound, sweat started on his forehead.
"I didn’t mean to! Upon my soul I didn’t mean to!" he stammered but she didn’t believe him. As he set her upright on his knee she drew back her chin and looked at him with apprehension, wondering what he would next do to her. What he did was to carry her through the passages and down the companion-way to where the emigrants were sitting in their common-room. Here he almost threw her on to the lap of the respectable Scotswoman, mother of five, and commanded her to care for his daughter as best she could. It turned out that she cared for Gussie very capably, neglecting her own hardy bairns to do it, and he paid her well for her trouble.
As though the Alanna had not had enough to contend with she next had a narrow escape from collision with an iceberg. As it was early for these, there was perhaps not such a strict watch kept as should have been. Terrifyingly, at dawn the monstrous pale cathedral-like form gathered itself together out of the mists. Some unusually hot weather had freed it from the mass. It loomed, rising out of the Gulf Stream, like cold malice made palpable. Yet it was shaped as a sacred edifice.
Shouts, warnings filled the air. Grigg was at the helm and doubled himself over it to force the ship from calamity. She just escaped but the chill air from the iceberg plunged those on board into sudden winter. Philip ran down to the cabin. Now Adeline had been convalescent for five days. She was beginning to draw on her clothes, frightened by the running footsteps, the shouts. She had not heard Philip leave her side.
"Are we taking to the boats?" she asked, in agitation.
"No. Nothing to worry about. But you must come on deck and see the iceberg. It’s stupendous, Adeline! You have your shoes and stockings on. Just put your cloak over your nightdress. You must not miss this sight".
He half carried her to the deck. Now the iceberg was farther off. It had lost its terror and gained in beauty, for the sun just showing a rim above the horizon had touched a thousand facets into fire. It rose out of the green waves in majesty, ethereal as a dream, unsubstantial as hope. Yet deep down in the sea its icy foundation was greater than its visible part.
After the Gulf Stream there was cold again and tall green seas arose. As the Alanna dived into them a snowstorm whistled out on the wind from land, obscuring all but the nearest waves from sight. If more icebergs were around, the ship was at their mercy. The look-outs posted high in the shrouds could see nothing but the myriad white flakes that swarmed over them, turning them into figures of snow, whipping their skin to rawness, blinding their eyes. It became so cold that the spray froze on the bulwarks, forming long sharp icicles like teeth shown in a grin.
The cabin passengers with the exception of Mrs. Cameron and her friends gathered in the salon, a little sad, yet resigned that their long intimacy was drawing to a close. But they would write to each other. They would not forget. They sat wrapped in their travelling-rugs trying to keep warm. Philip had got a large soapstone heated and this was at Adeline’s feet. The men sipped rum and water but she had a glass of port. Wrapped in her fur cloak as well as her travelling-rug, she was quite comfortable. She felt that she had returned from an individual voyage that had carried her near to death. When she thought of Huneefa it was as of someone lost long ago.
D’Arcy and Brent brought out their guide-books and maps and talked eagerly of their prospective travels in Canada and, more especially, in the States. The portholes were as though covered by cotton-wool. All sounds on the ship were muffled, except that the cordage rang with the onslaught of the wind.
Out of all this they came at sundown into a navy-blue sea and a red sun glowing on its rim. The waves were streaked by foam, the icicles were diamond bright, and then, wonder of wonders, they heard the whimpering of a gull and its shadow sped across the deck!
It was the first but others followed, circling and crying out to the ship, as though they carried a new message to her from a new world. A tall spout of water from a whale’s mouth rose bright out of the sea. He swam close to the ship, amazed at the size of this great bird, then leapt clear of the water and, with a glorious violent movement, disported himself in the air, smooth as silk, dripping and muscular. All from the cabins were now on deck and the monster seemingly was trying to show them his strength.
Captain Bradley was beaming his satisfaction. He said, his brown hands resting on the raiclass="underline"
"We shall land in Quebec before many days! I never arrive after a voyage like this without being struck afresh by God’s mercy in bringing us safely through. When you think of all that has passed since we first left Ireland, and here we are with land nearly in sight!"
"You might add that a large part of the credit is due to your own good seamanship", said Philip.