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Beg pardon, sir, did you happen to know the party next door to you?" "I know no one. What about him?" "Can't find him nowhere, sir. Door locked this morning; hadn't used his bed; must have come aboard, for there was a violin lying on the bed in a black box, for all the world like a coffin, sir. Queer, ain't it?" The steward was called away, but Helwyse's uneasiness had returned.
This, however, was not the worst. On arriving in New York, it was found that one of the passengers was missing! He had fallen overboard during the night, possibly at the time of the collision. Balder Halwyse was on board. Helwyse's sole sake, bade his fellow-convivialist good by, and took the train to Newport, and from there the "Empire State" for New York.
This plump, superficial, smiling little hair-dresser was a person of no importance, yet it happened to him to modify not only Helwyse's external aspect, but the aspect of his mind as well, by the presentation of a new idea; for strange to say, Helwyse had never chanced to doubt that seraphim were higher than cherubim, or that independence was the only ladder to heaven.
But so soon as his eye became single, he stood pronounced in his individuality, less broadly indifferent than of yore, but organized and firm. In this inert world the body pursues but imperfectly the processes of the soul. These three days had made small change in Helwyse's face. His expression was less serene than of yore, but pithier as well as more joyful.
The foremost man of all this world once whined like a sick girl for his physic, and preposterously overestimated his swimming powers; yet his greatness found him out! In sober earnest, however, what real importance attaches to Helwyse's doings at this juncture? Physically and mentally weary, he may have acted from the most ordinary motives.
"Policemen!" he began, with a return of his assured voice and bearing. They stared at him, and one said, "How?" "Direct me to the best hotel near here!" said Helwyse. They stared, and told him the way to the Astor House. There had been but the briefest hesitation in Helwyse's mind, but during that pause he had reconsidered his resolve and said No to it.
The talismanic diamond flashed or waned, and fiercely wriggled the little fighting serpents. At length Thor Helwyse's gauntlet was thrown into the ring; and peace if still present to outward seeming abode not in the feverish soul of the Egyptian. But it was his nature to dissemble.
Helwyse's face expressed neither anguish nor relief; he presently lost himself in thoughts of his own, only returning to the perception of outside things when the barber asked him whether he, also, had ever attended camp-meeting; the subject being evidently one which had been held forth upon for some time past.
In front slid ceaselessly away the vast sweep of levelled water, and still it came undiminished on. The opposing shore was a mile distant, its rocky front gradually gaining abruptness and height until lost round the northern curve. But directly opposite Helwyse's promontory, the stony wall was for some way especially precipitous and high, its lofty brink serried with a thick phalanx of trees.
Perfect strength can coexist only with perfect knowledge, but neither is attainable by man. Man should pay to be screened from himself, lest his sword fail, lest the Gorgon's head on his breast change him to stone. The gracious, outflowering veil of Balder Helwyse's life had vanished, leaving nakedness. Henceforth he must depend on fence, feint and guard, not on the downright sword-stroke.
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