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given rather to melancholy, but now an acute depression of spirits came on him
for no reason apparently. He could not sleep, his appetite failed, and the
doctors, fearing consumption, ordered him away on a sea voyage. When he heard
this prescription he laughed in such a strange way that Madame Duplessis, who
had been full of anxiety as to his bodily condition, became for a moment
apprehensive as to his mental state. However she said nothing, keeping her
fears hidden and busying herself in preparations for the voyage.
"It chanced that just at that moment a friend had a yacht to dispose of, an
eight-hundred-ton auxiliary-engined schooner,La Gaudriole . It was going cheap
and Madame Duplessis, who was a good business woman, bought it, reckoning to
sell it again when the voyage was over.
"A month later they leftMarseilles .
"They visitedGreece and the islands, then, having touched atAlexandria, they
passed through the canal, came down the Red Sea and crossed theIndian Ocean .
They touched atCeylon and while there Madame Duplessis suggested that, instead
of going toMadras as they had intended,they should go into the Pacific by way
of the Straits of Malacca. Duplessis opposed this suggestion at first,then
fell in with it. More than that, he became enthusiastic about it. A weight
seemed suddenly to have been lifted from his mind, his eyes grew bright, and
the melancholy that all the breezes of theIndian Ocean had not blown away
suddenly vanished.
"Two days later they leftCeylon , came through the Straits of Malacca and, by
way of theArofuraSea andTorrasStraits , into the Pacific. The captain of the
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yacht had suggested the Santa Cruzislands as their first stopping place, but
one night Duplessis took his wife aside and asked her would she mind their
making forNew Caledonia instead. Then he gave his reason.
"He said to her, 'When you married me I told you I had no family. That was
not quite the truth. I have a brother. He is a convict serving sentence
inNoumea . I did not tell you because the thing was painful to me as death.'
"You can fancy her feelings, struck by a bombshell like that, but she says
nothing and he goes on telling her the yarn he ought to have told her before
they were married.
"This brother, Charles Duplessis, had been rather a wild young scamp. He
lived in the Rue du Mont Thabor, a little street behind the Rue St. Honoré
inParis , and he made his money on the Stock Exchange. Then he got into
terrible trouble. He was accused of a forgery committed by another man but
could not prove his innocence. Armand was certain of his innocence but could
do nothing, and Charles was convicted and sent toNew Caledonia .
"Well, Madame Duplessis sat swallowing that fact, and when he'd done speaking
she sat swallowing some more as if her throat was dry. Then she says to
Armand:
"'Your brother is innocent, then,' she says.
"'As innocent as yourself,' he answers her, 'and it is the knowledge of all
this that has caused my illness and depression. Before I was married, I
managed to forget it all, but married to the woman I love, rich and happy,
with enviable surroundings, thoughts of Charles came and knocked at my door,
saying, 'Remember me in your happiness.'"
"'But can we do nothing for him?' asked Madame Duplessis.
"'Nothing' replied Armand, 'unless we can help him to escape.'
"Then he went on to tell her how he had not wanted to come on this long
voyage at first, feeling that there was some fate in the business, and that it
would surely bring him somehow or another to Noumea; then how the idea had
come to him at Ceylon that he might be able to help Charles to escape.
"She asked him if had he anyplan, and he replied that he had not--that it was
impossible to make any plan till he reachedNoumea and studied the place and
its possibilities.
"Well, there was the position the woman found herself in, and a nice position
it was. Think of it, married only a short time and now condemned to help a
prisoner to escape fromNew Caledonia , for, though she could easily have
refused, she felt compelled to the business both for the sake of her husband
and the sake of his brother, an innocent man wrongfully convicted.
"She agreed to help in the attempt, like the high-spirited woman she was, and
a few days later they raised theNew Caledonia reef and theNoumea lighthouse
that marks the entrance to the harbor.
"Madame Duplessis had a big acquaintance inParis , especially among the
political and military people, and, no sooner had the yacht berthed than the
governor and chief people who knew her name began to show their attentions,
tumbling over themselves with invitations to dinners and parties.
"That, again, was a nice position for her, having to accept the hospitality
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