I shook my head, as I lay wondering whether I liked this stern, cold, dark man, or whether I did not.
“Ah, well, we will soon pick out a man from the draft. This looks like the key.”
It was the right one, and in a quiet matter-of-fact way, and with very little help from me, he selected the necessary articles; and an hour later I went on deck, saving a slight headache, very little the worse.
I was eager to see how far we had dropped down the river; but at the end of ten minutes I was back in the cabin, flushed, hot, and excited, to find the door unfastened this time, and Captain Brace unpacking and arranging such articles as he wanted on the voyage.
“Hullo!” he cried; “not so well?”
“Oh, it’s horrid!” I cried excitedly. “How can people be so stupid!”
“Why, what is the matter?”
“I felt quite ashamed of myself,” I cried. “I had no sooner got on deck than the men began to cheer. I did not know then that it was meant for me, but directly after the captain came up and shook hands with me.”
“Very civil of him,” said my brother-officer, drily.
“Oh yes, if he had only meant it civilly; but then the chief officer came up, and a lot of passengers, and they all shook hands, and there was quite a crowd, and before I knew what was going to happen, I found a pack of ladies had come up, and one, a very stout little woman, called me her dear boy, and kissed me, and two others took out their handkerchiefs and began to cry.”