The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Frozen Deep, by Wilkie Collins

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Title: The Frozen Deep

Author: Wilkie Collins

Posting Date: October 5, 2008 [EBook #1625]
Release Date: February, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FROZEN DEEP ***

Produced by James Rusk

THE FROZEN DEEP

by Wilkie Collins

First Scene--The Ball-room

Chapter 1.

The date is between twenty and thirty years ago. The place is an English
sea-port. The time is night. And the business of the moment is--dancing.

The Mayor and Corporation of the town are giving a grand ball, in
celebration of the departure of an Arctic expedition from their port.
The ships of the expedition are two in number--the _Wanderer_ and the
_Sea-mew_. They are to sail (in search of the Northwest Passage) on the
next day, with the morning tide.

Honor to the Mayor and Corporation! It is a brilliant ball. The band is
complete. The room is spacious. The large conservatory opening out of it
is pleasantly lighted with Chinese lanterns, and beautifully decorated
with shrubs and flowers. All officers of the army and navy who are
present wear their uniforms in honor of the occasion. Among the ladies,
the display of dresses (a subject which the men don't understand) is
bewildering--and the average of beauty (a subject which the men do
understand) is the highest average attainable, in all parts of the room.

For the moment, the dance which is in progress is a quadrille. General
admiration selects two of the ladies who are dancing as its favorite
objects. One is a dark beauty in the prime of womanhood--the wife of
First Lieutenant Crayford, of the _Wanderer_. The other is a young girl,
pale and delicate; dressed simply in white; with no ornament on her head
but her own lovely brown hair. This is Miss Clara Burnham--an orphan.
She is Mrs. Crayford's dearest friend, and she is to stay with Mrs.
Crayford during the lieutenant's absence in the Arctic regions. She
is now dancing, with the lieutenant himself for partner, and with Mrs.
Crayford and Captain Helding (commanding officer of the _Wanderer_) for
vis-a-vis--in plain English, for opp