asionally joined for a moment;
while Sir Edgar was down below, chatting and laughing with the two
children during their preparation by the nurse for bed. The two maids
were also below, busy in their mistress's cabin.

The ship having been all day--as she still was--in charge of the pilot,
I had had leisure to make the first advances toward an acquaintance with
my passengers; and, from what I had thus far seen of them, I had every
reason to hope that the association would be a particularly pleasant
one.

Sir Edgar was a fine, handsome man, of about thirty-five years of age,
standing some five feet nine or ten inches in his stockings, well made,
with dark brown hair that covered his head in short wavy curls. He had
dark blue eyes, with which he looked one frankly and pleasantly in the
face; and his manner, while it possessed all the polish of the perfect
gentleman, was particularly frank and genial.

Lady Desmond appeared to be some eight or nine years younger than her
husband, and was unquestionably an exceedingly handsome woman. She was
perhaps three inches less in height than her husband, but, when standing
apart from him, gave one the impression of being the taller of the two,
probably because she happened to be very thin and fragile-looking when
she first joined the _Esmeralda_. She had evidently only just emerged
from a very severe illness, for all her movements were marked by the
slowness and languor of one who is still an invalid. She had not a
vestige of colour, and her hands, when I saw them ungloved at the dinner
table, were attenuated to a degree that was painful to contemplate; but
her eyes were magnificent, and her voice, albeit it was weak and low
like that of an invalid, was very sweet and sympathetic in tone. I had
not been enlightened as to the nature of her illness; but its most
marked symptom appeared to be a profound melancholy and depression of
spirits which it seemed utterly impossible for her to shake off.

Her sister, Miss Merrivale, was her exact counterpart, except that the
latter was the junior by some three or four years, and was, both in form
and complexion, the very picture of exuberant health and spirits. She
possessed a singularly agreeable and engaging, though high-bred manner;
and the patient tenderness with which she studied her invalid sister's
whims quickly won my warmest admiration.

Of the two children, the elder was a fine sturdy boy, about seven years
old, named after