CHAPTER XXXIX.
IN STORM AND DARKNESS.
Lesbia found Lady Kirkbank prostrate on a low divan in the saloon, sleepless, and very cross. The atmosphere reeked with red lavender, sal-volatile, eau de Cologne, and brandy, which latter remedy poor Georgie had taken freely in her agonies. Kibble, the faithful Grasmere girl, sat by the divan, fanning the sufferer with a large Japanese fan. Rilboche had naturally, as a Frenchwoman, succumbed utterly to her own feelings, and was moaning in her berth, wailing out every now and then that she would never have taken service with Miladi had she suspected her to be capable of such cruelty as to take her to live for weeks upon the sea.
If this was the state of affairs now while the ocean was only gently stirred, what would it be by-and-by if the tempest should really come?
'What can you be thinking of, staying on deck all night with those men?' exclaimed Lady Kirkbank, peevishly. 'It is hardly respectable.'
She would have been still more inclined to object had she known that Lesbia's companion had been 'that man' rather than 'those men.'
'What do you mean by all night?' Lesbia retorted, contemptuously; 'it is only just twelve.'
'Only twelve. I thought we were close upon daylight. I have suffered an eternity of agony.'
'I am very sorry you should be ill; but really the sea has been so deliciously calm.'