‘No, rest quiet here for this evening. Take your night’s rest. You shall begin to-morrow. I’ll send Mrs. Richards to sit with ye. You shan’t be alone. And now, d’ye know, Miss C——, for all your scared looks you’re better than you were when I opened the door just now. Good-night.’
He spoke abruptly, but he grasped my hand kindly and looked at me with kindness and sympathy in the face.
The moment I was alone I opened the door and put my head out, hoping to hear the voice of the beautiful young woman, whoever she might be, who was singing in the saloon, but either the song was ended or the music was inaudible down in this part of the ship where my cabin was. Instead of the tones of a beautiful young woman, rising and falling in a sweet Scotch melody, I heard the grumbling accents of four men playing at whist at a table at the forward end of the steerage. The movements of the ship were indicated by the somewhat violent oscillations of the lamp under which they sat, four bearded men holding cards.
I was about to withdraw my head when I observed Mrs. Richards coming along the steerage. She bore a large bundle in her arms under whose weight she moved with difficulty, owing to the rolling of the ship; and she came directly to my cabin.
‘Here it is,’ she exclaimed, letting the bundle fall upon the deck. ‘How heavy good under-linen is! It’s the rubbish that’s light, though it looks more, and that’s why it pays. Here, my dear, is quite an outfit for you. You may take them as gifts or you may take them as loans, that’s as your pride shall decide. There’s some,’ said she, kneeling and opening the bundle, ‘from Mrs. Webber, and some from Mrs. Lee, and likewise a dress from Miss Lee, which she hopes will fit, and some from——;’ and she named three other ladies among the passengers.
The collection was indeed an outfit in its way. There was no essential article of female attire in which it was lacking.
‘The ladies,’ said Mrs. Richards, ‘put their heads together, and one said she’d give or lend this, and another said she’d give or lend that; so here’ll be enough to last you to Sydney, ay, and even home again.’
The good little creature’s face was bright with pleasure and satisfaction as she held up the articles one after another for me to look at.
‘How am I to thank the ladies for their kindness?’ said I.
‘By wearing the things, my dear, and in no other way do they look for thanks,’ she answered; and then she proposed that I should put on Miss Lee’s dress to see if it fitted me.