"Nor to Gideon Hayle," prompted Ramsey, and while he ha-haed a cordial assent she asked: "Whereabouts below is he--Captain Courteney?" But the mate had turned away and she asked Hugh: "Where's your father? What's he doing?" Her thought was still on the unmentionable new case.
"I'll tell you," said Hugh in the low voice she liked so well. "Will you look at the river with me?"
He felt her responsive nod and smile even after they had moved to the front window farthest from their three seniors and stood gazing out into the beautiful tempest. Both wind and downpour had somewhat slackened their fury. A bit nearer than before and more to starboard they could faintly make out the _Antelope_, so white that it seemed as if she had gone down and her ghost come up wrapped and whipped in sheets of rain.
"You don't ask me about your mother," said Hugh.
"Ah!--when you've been all this time with us!"
"That's so! And while you was away--were away--" In lively undertone Ramsey ran on to tell of Mrs. Gilmore's having in Hugh's absence called in her maid Harriet to show the young lady from Napoleon how to do a bit of stage business without a hint of the stage. At the tale's end the pair glanced round from the nearing _Antelope_ to the Gilmores and back again. "Harriet's talented. You wouldn't think she could be talented. And isn't she handsome!"
"I've yet to see her face," said Hugh abstractedly.
"That's so, too! When she heard you coming back that time, she ran like a kildee." The narrator checked a laugh. "How's mom-a? Oh, she's well or you'd have told me. I just can't imagine mom-a any way but well." But again the tone betrayed incertitude.
"Yes, she's well," said the youth. "So is my father."
Hugh's queer solemnity deepened. "He's down in a stateroom with your brothers. The senator and the general have just joined them."
What a freshet of grave information! Ramsey laughed straight at him. "You talk like a trance medium."
"You do! I heard one once. You're in a trance now."
"You are! Y'always are." When Hugh laughed, her laugh redoubled. The mate and the players, though busy talking, took time to smile; the mate winked an eye. Suddenly Ramsey sobered. "Is Basile in hot water again? Tell me quick."