w?

We will describe them according to seniority. That tall, thin,
cross-looking lady of forty-five is a spinster, and sister to Lord B.
She had been persuaded, very much against her will, to come on board;
but her notions of propriety would not permit her niece to embark under
the protection of _only_ her father. She is frightened at everything: if
a rope is thrown down on the deck, up she starts, and cries 'Oh!' if on
the deck, she thinks the water is rushing in below; if down below, and
there is a noise, she is convinced there is danger; and if it be
perfectly still, she is sure there is something wrong. She fidgets
herself and everybody, and is quite a nuisance with her pride and
ill-humour; but she has strict notions of propriety, and sacrifices
herself as a martyr. She is the Hon. Miss Ossulton.

The lady who, when she smiles, shows so many dimples in her pretty oval
face, is a young widow, of the name of Lascelles. She married an old man
to please her father and mother, which was very dutiful on her part. She
was rewarded by finding herself a widow with a large fortune. Having
married the first time to please her parents, she intends now to marry
to please herself; but she is very young, and is in no hurry.

That young lady with such a sweet expression of countenance is the Hon.
Miss Cecilia Ossulton. She is lively, witty, and has no fear in her
composition; but she is very young yet, not more than seventeen--and
nobody knows what she really is--she does not know herself. These are
the parties who meet in the cabin of the yacht. The crew consists of ten
fine seamen, the steward and the cook. There is also Lord B.'s valet,
Mr. Ossulton's gentleman, and the lady's-maid of Miss Ossulton. There
not being accommodation for them, the other servants have been left on
shore.

[Illustration: _The Hon. Miss Cecilia Ossulton._]

The yacht is now under way, and her sails are all set. She is running
between Drake's Island and the main. Dinner has been announced. As the
reader has learnt something about the preparations, I leave him to judge
whether it be not very pleasant to sit down to dinner in a yacht. The
air has given everybody an appetite; and it was not until the cloth was
removed that the conversation became general.

'Mr. Seagrove,' said his lordship, 'you very nearly lost your passage; I
expected you last Thursday.'

'I am sorry, my lord, that business prevented my sooner attending to
your lordship's kind su