"I had done nothing wrong, of course. I had obeyed
every order, and minded every signal. But still I knew
public opinion might be against me when they heard of the
loss of the palace. I did not feel very well about it,
and I wrote a note to say I was not well enough to take
my train the next night; and I and Mrs. Joslyn went
to New York, and I went aboard a Collins steamer as
fireman; and Mrs. Joslyn, she went as stewardess; and I
wrote to Pemaquid, and gave up my place. It was a good
place, too; but I gave it up, and I left America.
Bill Todhunter, he resigned his place too, that same
day, though that was a good place. He is in the Russian
service now. He is running their line from Archangel to
Astrachan; good pay, he says, but lonely. August would
not stay in America after his brother left; and he is now
captain's clerk on the Harkaway steamers between Bangkok
and Cochbang; good place he says, but hot. So we are all
parted.
"And do you know, sir, never one of us ever heard of
the lost palace!"
Sure enough, under that very curious system of
responsibility, by which one corporation owns the
carriages which another corporation uses, nobody in the
world has to this moment ever missed "The Lost Palace."
On each connecting line, everybody knew that "she" was
not there; but no one knew or asked where she was.
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