Half a crown apiece would have gone beyond it, as we discovered
afterward, for the old lady's handkerchief was in her box, lost under
some more of her property; and the tide of sleepy charity taking this
direction under such vehement impulse, several other steerage passengers
lost their goods, but found themselves too late in doing so. But the
Major was satisfied, and the rude man who had told him to go amiss,
begged his pardon, and thus we sailed on slowly and peaceably.

CHAPTER XIX

INSIDE THE CHANNEL

That little incident threw some light upon Major Hockin's character. It
was not for himself alone that he was so particular, or, as many would
call it, fidgety, to have every thing done properly; for if any thing
came to his knowledge which he thought unfair to any one, it concerned
him almost as much as if the wrong had been done to his own home self.
Through this he had fallen into many troubles, for his impressions were
not always accurate; but they taught him nothing, or rather, as his wife
said, "the Major could not help it." The leading journals of the various
places in which Major Hockin sojourned had published his letters of
grievances sometimes, in the absence of the chief editor, and had
suffered in purse by doing so. But the Major always said, "Ventilate it,
ventilate the subject, my dear Sir; bring public opinion to bear on it."
And Mrs. Hockin always said that it was her husband to whom belonged
the whole credit of this new and spirited use of the fine word
"ventilation."

As betwixt this faithful pair, it is scarcely needful perhaps to say
that the Major was the master. His sense of justice dictated that, as
well as his general briskness. Though he was not at all like Mr. Gundry
in undervaluing female mind, his larger experience and more frequent
intercourse with our sex had taught him to do justice to us; and it was
pleasant to hear him often defer to the judgment of ladies. But this
he did more, perhaps, in theory than in practice; yet it made all the
ladies declare to one another that he was a perfect gentleman. And so
he was, though he had his faults; but his faults were such as we approve
of.

But Mrs. Hockin had no fault in any way worth speaking of. And whatever
she had was her husband's doing, through her desire to keep up with him.
She was pretty, even now in her sixtieth year, and a great deal prettier
because she never tried to look younger. Silver hair, and gentle eyes,
and a foreh