Lusitania: V.

Chapter V.
After

They left Queenstown the next day. Professor Holbourn took Avis on the ferry to Liverpool. Avis was not sorry to leave, for everywhere she looked she saw something to remind her of the tragedy—notices pinned up with descriptions of missing people; people wandering about with lost looks and sea-washed clothes. Some even still had their lifebelts on. There was one bright spot, however, for Avis saw Leslie walking down the street with his brother John.
“He found him!” she said. “I am glad.”
When Avis and the professor arrived at the station in Liverpool, they were met by a pretty, sensible-looking woman, whom Avis found was Prof. Holbourn’s wife. Avis liked her at once and she could soon tell that Mrs. Holbourn was almost as fond of her as the professor.
Prof. Holbourn had decided to take Avis to stay with her grandparents until she had quite recovered from the shock of the catastrophe. It having been over a year since last they had seen each other, their reunion was affecting. Avis would have been happy if only she had been allowed to stay with them, but all too soon she had to go away to the “young ladies’ seminary”.

It was a very ordinary girls’ school—respectable, with an eye to economy. Avis was one of two hundred proper young misses shut between the uninspiring walls which marked the boundaries of their term life. She wrote home dutifully every week, but letters from her mother were irregular at least, and often lacked the little bits of home news that Avis longed for so much.
As the weeks passed, Avis began to feel lonelier and lonelier. She had difficulty making friends with any of the girls of her own age, for she was so quiet and detached that they often overlooked her. The only thing she had to look forward to were the Christmas Holidays, when she would return home.
One afternoon Avis heard her name called by one of the teachers, and answering the summons, was handed not one letter—which would have been a rare occurrence—but two. She hurried back up the stairs to read them in the solitude of the deserted dormitory.
One of them was from her mother and Avis eagerly opened it first. “Dear Avis,” it read, “I know how much you have looked forward to coming home at Christmastime, but I am afraid I shall have to disappoint you. I have tried very hard to meet expenses, but it is extremely difficult just now to pay bills. Now dear, you don’t mind staying at the school over the holidays, do you? Of course we miss you here, but it can’t be helped. We will send you a lovely parcel at Christmastime, you know, and I daresay your grandfather and grandmother would like you to visit them for a week or two. Now do be a good, brave girl and I’ll see what may be done about bringing you home next summer.
-Your loving and affectionate mother”

Avis laid the letter down on the bed and sat gazing into the air. It was more of a disappointment than she liked to admit. It had been so long since she had seen a loved or familiar face that her heart quite longed for one like a thirsty man might long for water, though she hadn’t realised it until this letter showed her the impossibility of having this longing gratified.
“It’s no use,” she said at last. “I can’t be brave all by myself. Oh, Mama, don’t you want to see your little daughter? Oh, Papa! If only you were here, I know you’d find some way to bring me home!”
A tear slid down her cheek.
“I’m too big to cry,” she said, but it was no use. Another and another came, until she gave up fighting them and threw herself face down into the bed sheets.
It was in the middle of this storm that Avis suddenly thought of something. The Lord had been with her on the ship; wasn’t He with her here at the school too? To her mind came a verse her mother had taught her long ago, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Avis had always thought it a babyish verse because it was so short and simple, but now it seemed full of meaning for her. Why, God was here, in England, as well as in Canada.
She thought of another promise, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” He would; she knew it. He was looking after her.
Suddenly Avis remembered the second letter. She picked it up from the floor where it had fallen and examined it with interest, for she could not think of anyone besides her mother who would have sent it. The address was unfamiliar, but when Avis had opened it and saw the name at the bottom of the page, her eyes brightened—indeed, to her the whole world seemed to brighten, for this is what it said:
Foula, July 18th, 1915
Dear Avis,
I hope you are not still suffering any ill effects from the sinking. We are all well here. I should have written sooner but my work has kept me very busy of late—unfortunately some valuable manuscripts of mine were lost when the ship sank. We are determined to have you here for the Christmas holidays if your family can spare you. I had an idea the other day for an adventure story which perhaps when I am less busy I shall write out and send to you. You remember you said that stories for girls are not exciting enough. They were splendid times we had aboard ship, weren’t they? However sad the memories connected with the unfortunate Lusitania may be, I shall always treasure those of the time we spent together. By the way, I hope you do not give up singing altogether. I think your father would like for you to make other people happy with it as you made him. I wonder if I might call you ‘little bird’ too? You remind me of one. I remain as always,
Your friend,
Ian Holbourn

THE END





Historical Note:
On May 7th, 1915, just three years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Cunard Liner Lusitania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German submarine and sank in eighteen minutes.
More than two thousand people were killed in the terrible disaster, and those who survived would never forget the episode. The people in this story all really existed and their stories have been told as accurately as the author’s knowledge of events permitted. Avis Dolphin and Prof. Holbourn remained close friends throughout their lives and he later wrote for her a story entitled The Child of the Moat. Leslie Morton received a medal from King George V for his efforts in saving passengers. The Captain of the ship, Capt. Turner, survived and was put in command of a second ship, but retired after that, too, was torpedoed. Alfred Vanderbilt the American millionaire, a passenger during the ill-fated voyage, went down with the Lusitania after giving away his life belt to a woman. The U-boat electrician, a conscript from the German-controlled province of Alsace, was court-martialled for mutiny because of his protest of the sinking and sentenced to prison where he later died. The submarine which sank the Lusitania, U-20, became stranded on a sandbar later in the war and had to be blown up. The submarine captain, Kapitänleutnant Schwieger, took command of another submarine, which afterwards was lost in the North Sea with all hands, probably the victim of a mine.

Gaylord's Notebook:

A Scale of the Romance of Certain Situations

1. Dying
2. Getting Wounded
3. Getting Knocked Out
4. Getting Captured
5. Getting Tied Up
6. Being Held At Pistol-Point
7. Getting Punched
8. Getting Shot At Without Effect
9. Getting Chloroformed
10. Fainting