About a quarter of an hour after this the steward appeared on deck, and approaching Mrs. Cliff and the Captain, touched his hat. "Come to report, sir," said he, "the ministers are all sea-sick! There ain't none of them wants to get out of their berths, but some of them want tea."
Mrs. Cliff and the Captain could not help laughing, although she declared it was not a laughing matter.
"But it isn't surprising," said the Captain; "it's pretty rough, and I suppose they're all thorough-bred landsmen. But they'll get over it before long, and when they come on deck it's likely it will be pleasanter weather. We're having a considerable blow just now, and it will be worse when we get farther out! So I should say that you and Miss Croup and myself had better have our breakfast."
The steward was still standing by, and he touched his hat again, this time to Mrs. Cliff.
"The other lady is very sea-sick! I heard her groaning fearfully as I passed her door."
"Oh, I must go down to Willy," said Mrs. Cliff. "And, Captain, you and I will have to breakfast together."
As Mrs. Cliff opened the door of Willy Croup's state-room, a pale white face in the lower berth was turned towards her, and a weak and trembling voice said to her, "Oh, Sarah, you have come at last! Is there any way of getting me out of this horrible little hole?"
For two days Mrs. Cliff and Captain Burke breakfasted, dined, and supped by themselves. They had head-winds, and the sea was very rough, and although the yacht did not make the time that might have been expected of her in fair weather, she did very well, and Burke was satisfied. The two stewards were kept very busy with the prostrate and dejected members of the Synod, and Mrs. Cliff and the stewardess devoted their best efforts to the alleviation of the woes of Willy, which they were glad to see were daily dwindling.
They had rounded Cape Hatteras, the sea was smoother, the cold wind had gone down, and Willy Croup, warmly wrapped up, was sitting in a steamer chair on deck. The desire that she might suddenly be transferred to Plainton or to heaven was gradually fading out of her mind, and the blue sky, the distant waves, and the thought of the approaching meal were exercising a somewhat pleasurable influence upon her dreamy feeling, when Captain Burke, who stood near with a telescope, announced that the steamer over there on the horizon line was heading south and that he had a notion she was the Antonina, the vessel on which Shirley had sailed.
"I believed that we could overhaul her!" said he to Mrs. Cliff. "I didn't know much about her sailing qualities, but I had no reason to believe she has the speed of this yacht, and, as we're on the same course, I thought it likely we would sight her, and what's more, pass her. We'll change our course a little so that we will be closer to her when we pass."