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Page 3
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
[Italics are indicated by underscores
James Rusk, jrusk@cyberramp.net.]
[Etext prepared by James Rusk, jrusk@cyberramp.net. Italics are
indicated by the underscore character.]
THE FROZEN DEEP
by Wilkie Collins
First Scene--The Ball-room
Chapter 1.
The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is an
English sea-port. The time is night. And the business of the
moment is--dancing.
The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, in
celebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from their
port. The ships of the expedition are two in number--the
_Wanderer_ and the _Sea-mew_. They are to sail (in search of the
Northwest Passage) on the next day, with the morning tide.
Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. The
band is complete. The room is spacious. The large conservatory
opening out of it is pleasantly lighted with Chinese lanterns,
and beautifully decorated with shrubs and flowers. All officers
of the army and navy who are present wear their uniforms in honor
of the occasion. Among the ladies, the display of dresses (a
subject which the men don't understand) is bewildering--and the
average of beauty (a subject which the men do understand) is the
highest average attainable, in all parts of the room.
For the moment, the dance which is in progress is a quadrille.
General admiration selects two of the ladies who are dancing as
its favorite objects. One is a dark beauty in the prime of
womanhood--the wife of First Lieutenant Crayford, of the
_Wanderer_. The other is a young girl, pale and delicate; dressed
simply in white; with no ornament on her head but her own lovely
brown hair. This is Miss Clara Burnham--an orphan. She is Mrs.
Crayford's dearest friend, and she is to stay with Mrs. Crayford
during the lieutenant's absence in the Arctic regions. She is now
dancing, with the lieutenant himself for partner, and with Mrs.
Crayford and Captain Helding (commanding officer of the
_Wanderer_) for vis-a-vis--in plain English, for opposite couple.
The conversation between Captain Helding and Mrs. Crayford, in
one of the intervals of the dance, turns on Miss Burnham. The
captain is greatly interested in Clara. He admires her beauty;
but he thinks her manner--for a young girl--strangely serious and
subdued. Is she in delicate health?
Mrs. Crayford shakes her head; sighs mysteriously; and answers,
"In _very_ delicate health, Captain Helding."
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