the mizzenmast; a long table
with fixed revolving chairs on either hand, flanked to port and
starboard by a row of cabins or berths. After our experience aboard
the _Spitfire_, I was scarcely sensible of the motions of the deck of
this big ship, albeit she was rolling and curtseying as she floated,
clothed to her royal yards, over the sulky undulations of the water.
But I was able to gather from certain sounds which penetrated through
the closed doors of the berths that some of the passengers were not yet
quite well. There was nobody in the saloon save one little man with a
quantity of hair down his back after the manner of poets and
professors. He was seated near the main-deck entrance with a
countenance of a ghastly hue. His eyes were riveted to the deck, and
when the captain cheerily called to him to know how he did, he answered
without moving his figure or shifting his gaze, "Ach! Gott! don't
shpeak to me."

At this moment a door close beside which I was standing opened and
Grace came out, followed by the kind lady, Mrs. Barstow. She had
removed her hat and jacket, and was sweet and fresh with the
application of such toilet conveniences as her sympathetic acquaintance
could provide her with. Captain Parsons stared at her and then whipped
off his tall hat.

"This is better than the _Spitfire_, Grace," said I.

"Oh, yes, Herbert," she answered, sending a glance of her fine dark
eyes over the saloon; "but Mrs. Barstow tells me that the ship is going
to New Zealand."

"So she is, so she is," cried Captain Parsons, bursting into a laugh,
"and if you like, Mr. Barclay and you shall accompany us."

She looked at him with a frightened girlish air.

"Oh, no, Miss Bellassys," said Mrs. Barstow. "Captain Parsons is a
great humorist. I have made two voyages with him, and he keeps me
laughing from port to port. He will see that you get safely home, and
I wish that we could count upon arriving at Otaga as speedily as you
will reach England."

Just then a man in a camlet jacket entered the saloon--cuddy, I
believe, is the proper word for it. He was the head steward, and
Captain Parsons immediately called to him.

"Jenkins, here. This lady and gentleman have not breakfasted; they
have been shipwrecked, and wish to lunch. You understand? And draw
the cork of a quart bottle of champagne. There is no better
sea-physic, Miss Bellassys. I've known what it is to be five days in
an open boat in the middle of the