At all events he thought so, not knowing that though Margaret might forgive she could never forget; and that she was now forewarned and forearmed in perpetuity against any advance Barker might ever make.
One day the mail brought a large envelope with an English postage stamp, addressed in a strong, masculine hand, even and regular, and utterly without adornment, but yet of a strikingly peculiar expression, if a handwriting may be said to have an expression.
"CUNARD S.S._Servia, Sept.

15th_.
"My Beloved Lady--Were it not for the possibility of writing to you, this voyage would be an impossible task to me; and even as it is, the feeling that what I write must travel away from you for many days before it travels towards you again makes me half suspect it is a mockery after all.

After these wonderful months of converse it seems incredible that I should be thus taken out of your hearing and out of the power of seeing you.

That I long for a sight of your dear face, that I hunger for your touch and for your sweet voice, I need not tell you or further asseverate.

I am constantly looking curiously at the passengers, vainly thinking that you must appear among them.