CHAPTER XXI.
“ALONE ON A WIDE, WIDE SEA.”
“What fun this is!” exclaimed the pretty boy, Charlie Dacy.
He was convulsed with amusement, filled with unlawful delight. On each side of the companion was a small recess that commanded a view of the steps leading below. He had put Nina in one, and he stood in the other; and he was busily engaged in chaffing the various specimens of humanity who made their way up and down this particular opening to the deck.
Nina knew she ought not to stay, and at intervals made feeble efforts to escape him; but he was so amusing, and was so fond, or pretended to be so fond, of her society, that she could not get away.
“Here come the Hook and Eye,” he exclaimed, gleefully, “I hear them rattling down the passage!”
A lean, gaunt woman in a black bonnet and green veil came tugging up the stairway, a diminutive husband hanging loosely and helplessly on her arm.
The boy politely took off his cap when they came abreast of him. “Does your husband find himself in recovered health this afternoon, madam?”
“Hold your saucy tongue,” said the woman, abruptly and unexpectedly, as she passed him.
“Sharper than I thought,” he muttered, staggering back as if he had received a blow.
To atone for his misconduct, Nina followed the strange pair out on deck, and quite restored them to good humour by sending a steward to get a comfortable chair for the husband. Then she went back, resolving to exercise her powers of persuasion on Master Charles to get him to leave his present employment, and play shuffleboard with her.