uch more to the other lodger,
and she herself were somewhat of an intruder, Bluebell left her small
effects in the portmanteau, which she stowed away in the most
unobstrusive manner, not even venturing to hang up the brown-holland
contrivance of Aunt Jane.

Then she found her way on deck, where most of the passengers were
congregated, and, sitting down on a centre bench, in rather inconvenient
proximity to a skylight, was sufficiently amused in speculating on her
fellow travellers.

"My comrade can't be among them," she thought, "for she has left her hat
below."

Most noticeable were a young officer and his bride, as Bluebell
immediately decided the latter to be, partly from her helpless
_exigeante_ demeanour, and partly from the extreme newness of her
fashionable get up.

The minuteness and height of her heels were more conducive to the Grecian
bend than preserving a balance on a sloping deck, and her fanciful
aquatic costume of pale-blue serge more adapted to a nautical scene in
private theatricals than for contact with the drenching spray of the
rough Atlantic.

But ere the anchor weighed she shone pre-eminent, and had the
gratification of making a dozen other women feel shabby and dissatisfied.

In contrast to these was a sickly-looking, middle-class person, with two
children tastefully arrayed in purple frocks, red stockings, and magenta
comforters. They were clinging to a coarse-looking girl, also with a
preference for cheerfulness of hue, who carried a felt donkey, and seemed
to be the nursery-maid.

The head of this household, apparently, was not going to accompany them,
and, indeed, appeared in rather a more elevated condition than could be
wished. He addressed Bluebell, and inquired if her cabin was near his
wife's, and, on professing ignorance, said he trusted it might prove so,
as "he naturally felt great anxiety at her travelling so lone and
unprotected like,"--a slight unsteadiness of gait showing how irreparable
was the loss of her legitimate defender. The people around stared and
smiled, but he continued to gaze, in a mournful and approving way, at
Bluebell, while his wife sat in a state of repressed endurance,
calculating how many more minutes he would have for exposing himself
before the tug separated friends from passengers.

After a playful feint to throw one of his children overboard, he became
calmer, and relapsed into a maudlin monologue till the bell rang, when he
was hustled off, much