kness," put in Slag, who was
himself busily engaged with a mass of the proposed remedy. "It 'ud do
yer wife good too. Try it, ma'am. You're not half yerself yit.
There's too much green round your eyes an' yaller about yer cheeks for a
healthy young ooman."

"Thank you, I--I'd rather not," said poor Mrs Mitford, with a faint
smile--and, really, though faint, and called forth in adverse
circumstances, it was a very sweet little smile, despite the
objectionable colours above referred to. "I was never a great 'and with
victuals, an' I find that the sea don't improve appetite--though, after
all, I can't see why it should, and--"

Poor Mrs Mitford stopped abruptly, for reasons best known to herself.
She was by nature rather a loquacious and, so to speak, irrelevant
talker. She delivered herself in a soft, unmeaning monotone, which,
like "the brook," flowed "on for ever"--at least until some desperate
listener interrupted her discourteously. In the present instance it was
her own indescribable feelings which interrupted her.

"Try a bit o' plum-duff, Mrs Mitford," suggested Massey, with
well-intentioned sincerity, holding up a lump of the viand on his fork.

"Oh! please--don't! Some tea! Quick! I'll go--"

And she went.

"Poor Peggy, she never _could_ stand much rough an' tumble," said her
husband, returning from the berth to which he had escorted his wife, and
seating himself again at the table. "She's been very bad since we left,
an' don't seem to be much on the mend."

He spoke as one who not only felt but required sympathy--and he got it.

"Och! niver give in," said the assistant cook, who had overheard the
remark in passing. "The ould girl'll be all right before the end o'
this wake. It niver lasts more nor tin days at the outside. An' the
waker the patients is, the sooner they comes round; so don't let yer
sperrits down, Mr Mitford."

"Thank 'ee, kindly, Terrence, for your encouragin' words; but I'm
doubtful. My poor Peggy is so weak and helpless!"

He sighed, shook his head as he concluded, and applied himself with such
energy to the plum-duff that it was evident he expected to find refuge
from his woes in solid food.

"You don't seem to be much troubled wi' sickness yourself," remarked
Massey, after eyeing the lugubrious man for some time in silence.

"No, I am not, which is a blessin'. I hope that Mrs Massey ain't ill?"

"No; my Nell is never ill," returned the coxswain, in a hearty tone.