Masters and Dick spent their whole time on shore; always in each other's company. The author explained that he liked sympathy in his admiration for the lions of the port. The one made many sketches and the other many mental notes.
They were quite good friends again.
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOMEWARD BOUND
Two days after; La Mascotte steamed away from Madeira. The list of the ship's passengers had been added to. Two new persons were aboard, returning to England.
Masters and Dick were seated on deck in their usual places. The one writing, the other sketching; suddenly a voice behind them said:
"If it were needed, here is more evidence of the smallness of the world."
The voice had that settled Society drawl about it. Particularly unwelcome hearing away from its proper setting: the surroundings in which it is usually to be heard. In its own sphere it is bad enough; is positively jarring in the unconventional atmosphere of aboard-ship life.