making the voyage. She had not seen her sister for many years and,
moreover, this sudden return to America had upset her own plans.
She was a poor sailor, yet she loved the ocean and this was a good
excuse for a long trip. Shirley was too exhausted with worry to
offer further resistance and by great good luck the two women had
been able to secure at the last moment a cabin to themselves
amidships. Jefferson, less fortunate, was compelled, to his
disgust, to share a stateroom with another passenger, a fat German
brewer who was returning to Cincinnati, and who snored so loud at
night that even the thumping of the engines was completely drowned
by his eccentric nasal sounds.

The alarming summons home and the terrible shock she had
experienced the following morning when Jefferson showed her the
newspaper article with its astounding and heart rending news about
her father had almost prostrated Shirley. The blow was all the
greater for being so entirely unlooked for. That the story was
true she could not doubt. Her mother would not have cabled except
under the gravest circumstances. What alarmed Shirley still more
was that she had no direct news of her father. For a moment her
heart stood still--suppose the shock of this shameful accusation
had killed him? Her blood froze in her veins, she clenched her
fists and dug her nails into her flesh as she thought of the dread
possibility that she had looked upon him in life for the last
time. She remembered his last kind words when he came to the
steamer to see her off, and his kiss when he said good-bye and she
had noticed a tear of which he appeared to be ashamed. The hot
tears welled up in her own eyes and coursed unhindered down her
cheeks.