“So that’s done with,” said the doctor; “and now it’s heigh for home!—for us, that is. When you’re feeling blue, for want of Australia, Miss Linton, you can remember that we poor seafaring folk are going to have the luxury of getting home for Christmas—and that’s a thing that doesn’t often come our way.”
“I’m glad you are,” said Norah, soberly. It was easy to feel friendly with the doctor, even though she was a rather shy person. He was not very young, but for all that his face was like a boy’s; he had a merry voice, and his eyes were quick and kindly. When he smiled at her she felt that she had known him for quite a long time.
Mr. Linton appeared round a corner of the deck-house.
“Oh! there you are—I’ve been looking for you,” he said. “People on a ship of this size take plenty of hunting; I put a deck-steward on the trail at last, and he’s probably hunting still. Feel all right, Norah?”
“Yes, thank you,” said Norah, in such evident amazement that every one laughed.
“Well, you’ve been through the Rip—and that is an experience that leads many to take prompt refuge in their cabins,” said the doctor. “Not that there’s the least excuse for any one being ill on this ship—she’s as steady as old Time.”
“Why, I never thought about it,” Norah said. “The girls told me I’d be ill in the Rip, and I was feeling worried—I was thinking last night how horrid it would be. But I forgot all about it when it came—it was so interesting!”
“You’re not going to be ill at all—put it out of your head,” said the doctor. Which Norah promptly did, and had no occasion ever to revive unpleasant memories, since none of the party manifested signs of illness at any period of the voyage.
On their way to dress for dinner some one called Mr. Linton back, while the others waited for him on a wide landing. Close by was the purser’s office, where a heated altercation was going on between the chief assistant and the stout individual who had so narrowly caught the ship at the last moment.
“Sorry, Mr. Smith,” the assistant was saying. “The purser is engaged—he’s with the captain.”