arly sweet and pure in quality, of which, as
I subsequently discovered, she was very justly proud. She gave her
orders to Kennedy, who acted as her _aide_ and repeated them in
trumpet-like notes that could be distinctly heard all over the ship.
It was then, while we were hauling out of dock, that I got my first
glimpse of Miss Anthea, Master Julius, and the Reverend Henry James
Monroe, all of whom came on deck to witness the passage of the ship
through the dock gates and down the river. I was stationed in the
waist, and therefore only obtained at that moment a comparatively
distant glimpse of the saloon party on the poop, but even that sufficed
to confirm the testimony of the second engineer as to Miss Anthea's
physical charms. But I did not altogether like her expression, which
was a blank, save for a hint of hauteur mingled with dissatisfaction at
things in general.
Her brother was so exactly like her in features that the two might have
been twins, but he was a good three inches shorter than his sister, as
well as a trifle thinner in the face. He talked incessantly in a sharp,
high-pitched, and most unmusical voice, the unattractiveness of which
was further heightened by a pronounced nasal American accent. From such
scraps of his conversation as reached me from time to time I gathered
that his talk was almost wholly about himself, his doings, his opinions,
his likes and dislikes--chiefly the latter. I liked his expression even
less than that of his sister. It was a most objectionable mingling of
peevishness, insolence, and self-assurance; while his manner, even to
his mother, was domineering and dictatorial to a perfectly disgusting
degree. There was no doubt in my mind that he had been thoroughly
spoiled from the moment of his birth onward, and the process was still
going on, if I was anything of a judge of such matters.
As regards the Reverend Mr Monroe, all I need say about him at this
juncture was that he appeared to answer in every respect to the verbal
portrait that had been drawn of him in the wardroom during the preceding
evening.
Shortly after we had cleared the dock gates I got a message from Snip
requesting me to present myself in his workshop as early as possible to
try on my mess jacket and waistcoat; which, like the new rig I had
donned little more than an hour earlier, I found fitted me excellently.
I was promised that the entire suit should be ready for me in time for
mess that night (i
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