Journey in the dark by Flavin Martin 1883-1967

Author:Flavin, Martin, 1883-1967
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Men, Success
Publisher: New York : Harper & Bros.
Published: 1943-02-18T04:00:00+00:00

your heart out into eyes that were not there—not resentful or reproachful, but inscrutably remote. And it hadn't to do with what he had thought then—or, if it had, what of it? It was a part of her which had intrigued him greatly, even as a child: the enigma of her eyes; but you couldn't live with it. You simply never knexv —

Perhaps it would have yielded if they had been let alone to survive their honej-moon, if tragedy had not come knocking at the door—not bringing them together, as indeed it might have done had it been theirs instead of hers—

He had ordered breakfast and was in the bathroom, shaving. When he came into the parlor she was sitting at the table with the morning paper spread across her lap, and her face as white as chalk. She held the paper up for him to see the headlines, great black letters spread across the page: " 'S. S. Titanic' Lost." At first it hadn't registered—

"Uncle Elliott," she said.

"Good God!" He took the paper from her. The "Titanic" had collided with an iceberg off Newfoundland in the night—that night while they were sitting in the theater or the restaurant. It had sunk despite the fact that it was unsinkable, the final word in luxury, security, and speed, racing through the ice-encumbered ocean in the dark to break a record on its maiden voyage—to win a rag of bunting. It had gone to the bottom in two hours and a half. Two thousand people were on board her; no one could say as yet how many had been lost. Ships had been summoned by the wireless, and several had responded. The "Carpathia" had arrived upon the scene and rescued some survivors—

"Look here," he said and pointed to the line. "They'll be all right, Eileen."

She shook her head. She didn't cry—not then or afterwards.

He went on reading—the names of notables who had been among the passengers: Astor, Ismay, Widener, Guggenheim the copper king— like a page out of the peerage. Among the titans, lower down, was Wyatt. He felt a little thrill to see it in that list. He was deeply sympathetic and concerned, but on her account alone. Elliott and Daphne did not belong to him, had no claim on his emotions; he hardly knew them. He kept assuring her that they would be all right, reflecting to himself that people of importance always managed to be rescued, urging her to eat some breakfast. He was hungry but he felt that it would appear unfeeling if he ate his eggs and bacon in the face of her distress. He drank a cup of coffee and nibbled at the toast—

The telephone broke in—prelude to endless ringing. It was Wayne in

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