"I should like the cabin to be made very comfortable, for I think the boatman will have his wife on board. Could it not be made a little larger?"
"There would be no great difficulty about that. You see, this is a water-tight compartment, but of course it could be carried six feet farther forward and a permanent hatchway be fixed over it, and the lining made good in the new part. As to height, one might put in a good-sized skylight; it would not be usual, but of course it could be done."
"And you could put the bed-place across there, could you not, and put a curtain to draw across it?"
"Yes, that could be managed easy enough, miss; and it would make a very tidy cabin."
"Then how much would that cost extra?"
"Forty or fifty pounds, at the outside."
"And when could you get it all finished, and everything painted a nice color?"
"I could get it done in a week or ten days, if you made a point of it."
"I do make a point of it," Hilda said.
"What do you say to our leaving this bulkhead up as it is, miss, and making a door through it, and putting a small skylight, say three feet square, over the new part? You see, it will be fifteen feet wide by six feet, so that it will make a tidy little place. It would not cost more than the other way, not so much perhaps; for it would be a lot of trouble to get this bulkhead down, and then, you see, the second hand could have his bunk in here, on the lockers, and be quite separate."