She blushed before her own brain’s boldness.  In that youth undoubtedly might, even now, be found the hero of the romance which the new world would undoubtedly unfold for her delighted eyes to read!  Singularly innocent and ignorant of many things which most girls of her age know well, she did not stop to reason any of this out—­she merely felt the firm conviction of its certainty, and, for a time, was glad.

But as the ship passed slowly up the river, and, finally, was taken charge of by the grimy tugs which nosed her with much labor into place at a great dock, the officers began to hustle all the steerage passengers into more compact masses on the deck and her attention once more centered on the matters of the moment.  The building on the dock shut off the free salt breeze and quickly the unclean breath of the crowd distressed her lungs.  The worried immigrants trod on one another’s heels, fell across their huddled trunks and bundles, chattered, gayly or in fright, close in each other’s ears.  There was a long delay, in which, if one of the poor throng dared move beyond the boundaries set for them by the burly officers in charge, loud language, not too nice to hear, was the result, and, even, once or twice, a blow.  She heard an English-speaking veteran of many voyages explaining to his uncomfortable fellows what Vanderlyn had told his mother about them:  that because they had come in the steerage they could not land upon the dock, as did the passengers of the first-cabin, but would be borne to some far spot for further health-inspection and examination as to their ability to earn their livelihoods.

This worried her, as it had Vanderlyn.  Suppose her father should not satisfy these stern examiners?  Would the authorities consider that ability to play a flute divinely was sufficient ground for thinking that a man could earn his way?  And, if they were landed in two different places, how would the young man know just where to look for her?  She almost paled at thought that, possibly, she might be whisked beyond his ken; but then there came the thought of his ability in an emergency, as evidenced by his flying leap down to her rescue, and, shyly smiling, she comforted herself with the reflection that that wondrous youth could make no failures.  That he thought of her she could not doubt, for she had never missed one of his frank, admiring glances, although, apparently, she had missed most of them.  She finally became quite sure he would not lose sight of her, and this was comforting.

For a full hour, after the ship had tied up to her dock, all on that deck were forced to stand in stuffy quarters, odorous and almost dark.  Between Anna and her father huddled M’riar, frightened, now, and snuffling, clinging desperately to the hand of the loved mistress she had run away to serve.  The flute-player, almost fainting from the heat and weariness, strove bravely to conceal this from his daughter, and, with pitiful assumption of fine strength, smiled down at her, through the thick gloom, from time to time, with reassurance, attempting to instill in her a courage which he, himself, she plainly saw, was losing rapidly.