He would have been more satisfied, however, had he been permitted to hear the feminine comments on this incident.  In the eyes of the lady passengers Mr. Hurlstone was more a hero than ever; his mysterious malady invested him with a vague and spiritual interest; his escape from the awful fate reserved to him, in their excited fancy, gave him the eclat of having actually survived it; while the supposed real incident of his fall through the hatchway lent him the additional lustre of a wounded and crippled man.  That prostrate condition of active humanity, which so irresistibly appeals to the feminine imagination as segregating their victim from the distractions of his own sex, and, as it were, delivering him helpless into their hands, was at once their opportunity, and his.  All the ladies volunteered to nurse him; it was with difficulty that Mrs. Brimmer and Mrs. Markham, reinforced with bandages, flannels, and liniments, and supported by different theories, could be kept from the door of his state-room.  Jellies, potted meats, and delicacies from their private stores appeared on trays at his bedside, to be courteously declined by the Senor Perkins, in his new functions of a benevolent type of Sancho Panza physician.  To say that this pleased the gentle optimism of the Senor is unnecessary.  Even while his companion writhed under the sting of this enforced compassion, the good man beamed philosophically upon him.

“Take care, or I shall end this cursed farce in my own way,” said Hurlstone ominously, his eyes again filming with a vague desperation.

“My dear boy,” returned the Senor gently, “reflect upon the situation.  Your suffering, real or implied, produces in the hearts of these gentle creatures a sympathy which not only exalts and sustains their higher natures, but, I conscientiously believe, gratifies and pleases their lower ones.  Why should you deny them this opportunity of indulging their twofold organisms, and beguiling the tedium of the voyage, merely because of some erroneous exhibition of fact?”

Later, Senor Perkins might have added to this exposition the singularly stimulating effect which Hurlstone’s supposed peculiarity had upon the feminine imagination.  But there were some secrets which were not imparted even to him, and it was only to each other that the ladies confided certain details and reminiscences.  For it now appeared that they had all heard strange noises and stealthy steps at night; and Mrs. Brimmer was quite sure that on one occasion the handle of her state-room door was softly turned.  Mrs. Markham also remembered distinctly that only a week before, being unable to sleep, she had ventured out into the saloon in a dressing-gown to get her diary, which she had left with a portfolio on a chair; that she had a sudden consciousness of another presence in the saloon, although she could distinguish nothing by the dim light of the swinging lantern; and that, after quickly returning to her room, she was quite positive