José — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOSE. 27 and try as he might, he could not shake off the desire to look again into her face, again to hold her small white hand in his own. Beyond this he had no thoughts, and so he paced rapidly down the street, scanning every ladv whose form could re- motely remind him of hers. The levy was a scene of active commotion, but a quick glance over the great mass of draymen and colored deck-hands, engaged in loading and un- loading steamboats, convinced him that 1t was use- less to tarry here. He inquired for the first steamers to depart, and moved in the direction of the first that was pointed out to him. He passed through the handsome saloon of the vessel, leaving no face unscrutinized, but to no avail. He extended his search to the second, the third and the fourth boats, and would have been borne down the Mississippi to New Orleans on the fifth, had not a bold leap carried him ashore just as the boat was backing from the wharf—but he had nowhere discovered a trace that would have justified the indulgence of a hope. Slowly, and with a feeling of utter desolation, such as he had never felt before, he at last turned to go. According to his original programme, he should have taken the first steamer for St. Louis: but now he felt that in leaving Vicksburg he was giving up one of the fondest anticipations of his life. It was dusk by the time he reached the hotel, and he was in the act of taking a chair and withdrawing to one corner of the veranda, and there abandoning himself to the undisturbed flow of his thoughts, when the clerk called him and with a significant gesture, pointed to a second letter, which he held in his hand. - “Delivered fifteen minutes ago,” he said, Eomichbooks (E(@)