air.

'At all events, I can hear the remainder of it on deck,' replied Mrs.
Lascelles. The ladies rose and went into the cabin, Cecilia and Mrs.
Lascelles exchanging very significant smiles as they followed the
precise spinster, who did not choose that Mrs. Lascelles should take the
lead merely because she had once happened to have been married. The
gentlemen also broke up, and went on deck.

'We have a nice breeze now, my lord,' observed Mr. Stewart, who had
remained on deck, 'and we lie right up Channel.'

'So much the better,' replied his lordship; 'we ought to have been
anchored at Cowes a week ago. They will all be there before us.'

'Tell Mr. Simpson to bring me a light for my cigar,' said Mr. Ossulton
to one of the men.

Mr. Stewart went down to his dinner; the ladies and the coffee came on
deck; the breeze was fine, the weather (it was April) almost warm; and
the yacht, whose name was the _Arrow_, assisted by the tide, soon left
the Mewstone far astern.

CHAPTER II

CUTTER THE SECOND

Reader, have you ever been at Portsmouth? If you have, you must have
been delighted with the view from the saluting battery; and if you have
not, you had better go there as soon as you can. From the saluting
battery you may look up the harbour, and see much of what I have
described at Plymouth; the scenery is different, but similar arsenals
and dockyards, and an equal portion of our stupendous navy, are to be
found there; and you will see Gosport on the other side of the harbour,
and Sallyport close to you; besides a great many other places, which
from the saluting battery you cannot see. And then there is Southsea
Beach to your left. Before you, Spithead, with the men-of-war, and the
Motherbank crowded with merchant vessels; and there is the buoy where
the _Royal George_ was wrecked and where she still lies, the fish
swimming in and out of her cabin windows; but that is not all; you can
also see the Isle of Wight--Ryde with its long-wooden pier, and Cowes,
where the yachts lie. In fact, there is a great deal to be seen at
Portsmouth as well as at Plymouth; but what I wish you particularly to
see just how is a vessel holding fast to the buoy just off the saluting
battery. She is a cutter; and you may know that she belongs to the
Preventive Service by the number of gigs and galleys which she has
hoisted up all round her. She looks like a vessel that was about to sail
with a cargo of boats; two on deck, one astern,