But, goodness! How they've changed! Where are all those pretty, fashionable women who were on deck before we sailed? Where, for instance, is the adorable blonde with the seal coat, orchids, low shoes, silk stockings, and cough?
A certain cynical friend of mine would answer this inquiry by declaring that all the attractive women go ashore, having only come to see their homely relatives and friends depart. But I don't think so. I believe the pretty ones are here, though in seclusion or disguise.
Nothing of them that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
at the first touch of Neptune's hand. Only the professional mermaid can look well at sea. The other women either lie on deck in pale green rows and live throughout the voyage on sea biscuits and sherry, or, giving up completely, seek burrows in the ship and hibernate like animals awaiting spring. Yes, even now I think I recognise the blonde divinity. She's the third one from the end in that row of steamer-chairs in the wide part of the deck. Her orchids lie disconsolate upon her chest, her eyes are closed, her hair blows in straight, strawlike strings across her colourless face, her hat is on one ear, and she is wrapped like a mummy in an atrocious rug of pink and olive plaid.
I RECOGNIZE THE BLONDE DIVINITY. HER EYES ARE CLOSED, HER HAT ON ONE EAR, AND SHE IS WRAPPED LIKE A MUMMY.
Of course there's always the exception: the rosy-cheeked, plaid-coated creature who walks the deck without a hat, and lets the ringlets blow about her face. Her hair curls with the dampness. Her colour heightens with the seas and winds. You might suspect her of a golden scaly tail and fins, excepting that you see her tiny, well-shod feet as they step out firmly on the deck. They never step alone. There are lots of other feet, and larger, that delight in stepping with them. The very wind that loves her wafts her friends—wafts them with tobacco-smoke, as like as not:
"I beg your pardon, does this smoke trouble you?"
| } | |
| "Oh, no! Not in the least. My brothers all smoke. I adore the smell of a good | Cigar, Pipe, Cigarette. |
| Keep right on, please." |
"Thanks awfully. Perhaps you'd like to walk around to the other side and see the lightship?"