A reanalysis of the carbon abundance in the translucent cloud toward HD 24534

We have reanalyzed the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph data set presen ted by Snow et al., which contains the interstellar intersystem C II] lambd a 2325 line through the translucent cloud toward HD 24534 (X Persei). In co ntrast to the results of Snow et al., we clearly detect the C II] feature a t the 3 sigma confidence level and measure a C+ column density of 2.7 +/- 0 .8 x 10(17) cm(-2). Accounting for the C I column density along the line of sight, we find 10(6) C/H = 106 +/- 38 in the interstellar gas toward this star. This gas-phase carbon-to-hydrogen ratio suggests that slightly more c arbon depletion may be occurring in translucent as compared to diffuse clou ds. The average diffuse-cloud C/H, however, is within the 1 sigma uncertain ty of the measurement toward HD 24534. We therefore cannot rule out the pos sibility that the two cloud types have comparable gas-phase C/H and therefo re comparable depletions of carbon.