"Oh!" rather scornfully, "second-hand things are never valuable!"
Mr. Lisle laughed and said, "Well, don't let us quarrel. What did we start with? Oh! the moon;" and gazing over at that orb, he added, "I, too, can repeat poetry, Miss Denis, and this seems just a fitting place to quote:
" 'Larger constellations burning—mellow moons and happy skies;
Breadths of tropic shade, and palms in clusters—knots of paradise.' "
This was an apt quotation, and exactly illustrated the scene before them. The loud striking of a clock aroused these two people from a rather reflective silence; it recalled them sharply from day dreams, to the dinner-hour! And, after a little desultory conversation, they retraced their steps, and rejoined the crowd in the gardens just as the band was playing "God Save the Queen."
CHAPTER XII.
THE WRECK.
"The direful spectacle of the wreck."
Tempest
It may be among the facts not generally known, that the Andaman seas and shores are wealthy in shells; and people who grumble at being despatched to do duty at the settlement are usually consoled by their friends (who are not accompanying them), saying, "Oh, it's a charming place! if you have a taste for conchology, you will have any quantity of shelling."