Such were Rose's first ideas, as she clung in terror to her rigid but more resolute sister, who sprang forward and vainly attempted with her delicate hands to wrench round the bolt, and open the little window; but at that moment a fierce and sardonic smile seemed to spread over that livid and distorted visage, which instantly vanished, and then nothing was seen through the aperture but the vast sea that rolled in the starlight far away.
"Papa—Nurse Folgate!" screamed Rose; but the old woman slept like one of the seven sleepers.
"Hush!" said Ethel, "'twas only some insolent seaman; but we must prevent a recurrence of this," she added, as she rapidly hung a species of curtain over the window. "Good heavens, Rose! to think how often this may have happened before, and we in total ignorance of it; but the captain shall be told in the morning."
"Oh, Ethel!" exclaimed Rose, "how terrified I am."
"Why?"
"At first I thought it was his ghost."
"Whose?"
"Poor Mr. Manfredi's."
"Nonsense, child!"
"A ghost on board of a ship, how dreadful that would be! Almost as bad as a fire, for there would be no escaping from it."