“Where’s this Trafalgar Bay you were making such a fuss about?”
“We’ve passed it now,” Sylvia said.
“Oh, well, I dare say it wasn’t anything to look at. I’m bound to say the chocolate we had this morning does not seem to go with the sea air. They’re arguing the point inside me something dreadful. I suppose this boat is safe? It seems to be jigging a good deal. Mr. Linthicum said it was a good plan to put the head between the knees when you felt a bit—well, I wouldn’t say seasick—but you know.... I’m bound to say I think he was wrong for once. I feel more like putting my knees up over my head. Can’t you speak to the captain and tell him to go a bit more quietly? It’s no good racing along like he’s doing. Of course the boat jigs. I shall get aggravated in two twos. It’s to be hoped Morocco will be worth it. I never got up so early to go anywhere. Was that sailor laughing at me when he walked past? It’s no good my getting up to tell him what I think of him, because every time I try to get up the boat gets up with me. It keeps butting into me behind like a great billy-goat.”
Presently Mrs. Gainsborough was unable even to protest against the motion, and could only murmur faintly to Sylvia a request to remove her veil.
“Here we are,” cried Sylvia, three or four hours later. “And it’s glorious!”
Mrs. Gainsborough sat up and looked at the rowboats filled with Moors, negroes, and Jews.
“But they’re nearly all of them black,” she gasped.
“Of course they are. What color did you expect them to be? Green like yourself?”
“But do you mean to say you’ve brought me to a place inhabited by blacks? Well, I never did. It’s to be hoped we sha’n’t be eaten alive. Mrs. Marsham! Mrs. Ewings! Mrs. Beardmore! Well, I don’t say they haven’t told me some good stories now and again, but—”
Mrs. Gainsborough shook her head to express the depths of insignificance to which henceforth the best stories of her friends would have to sink when she should tell about herself in Morocco.