Mr. Frere--oh, thank you! Sylvia! Sylvia! John, have
you my smelling salts? Still a calm, I suppose? These dreadful calms!"

This semi-fashionable slip-slop, within twenty yards of the wild beasts'
den, on the other side of the barricade, sounded strange; but Mr. Frere
thought nothing of it. Familiarity destroys terror, and the incurable
flirt, fluttered her muslins, and played off her second-rate graces,
under the noses of the grinning convicts, with as much complacency as
if she had been in a Chatham ball-room. Indeed, if there had been
nobody else near, it is not unlikely that she would have disdainfully
fascinated the 'tween-decks, and made eyes at the most presentable of
the convicts there.

Vickers, with a bow to Frere, saw his wife up the ladder, and then
turned for his daughter.

She was a delicate-looking child of six years old, with blue eyes and
bright hair. Though indulged by her father, and spoiled by her
mother, the natural sweetness of her disposition saved her from being
disagreeable, and the effects of her education as yet only showed
themselves in a thousand imperious prettinesses, which made her the
darling of the ship. Little Miss Sylvia was privileged to go anywhere
and do anything, and even convictism shut its foul mouth in her
presence. Running to her father's side, the child chattered with all the
volubility of flattered self-esteem. She ran hither and thither, asked
questions, invented answers, laughed, sang, gambolled, peered into the
compass-case, felt in the pockets of the man at the helm, put her tiny
hand into the big palm of the officer of the watch, even ran down to the
quarter-deck and pulled the coat-tails of the sentry on duty.

At last, tired of running about, she took a little striped leather ball
from the bosom of her frock, and calling to her father, threw it up
to him as he stood on the poop. He returned it, and, shouting with
laughter, clapping her hands between each throw, the child kept up the
game.

The convicts--whose slice of fresh air was nearly eaten--turned with
eagerness to watch this new source of amusement. Innocent laughter and
childish prattle were strange to them. Some smiled, and nodded with
interest in the varying fortunes of the game. One young lad could hardly
restrain himself from applauding. It was as though, out of the sultry
heat which brooded over the ship, a cool breeze had suddenly arisen.

In the midst of this mirth, the officer of the watch, glan