‘I fear it is no more than girlish curiosity, together with the idea that you may be a titled lady. Did you hear them ask Mr. McEwan about you just now after he had given you one of his strange, abrupt nods? I am afraid they will not be able to help us.’
‘Do you observe,’ said Mrs. Lee, on the other side, ‘how the chief officer, Mr. Harris, watches you?’
‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘Probably he is thinking of our conversation the other night. He may have another idea about my memory to offer.’
‘He should attend to the navigation of the ship,’ said Mrs. Lee; ‘but, like most sailors, he will be glad to trouble himself about anything else.’
My sweet companion made no lunch. She feigned to eat to please her mother, who frequently projected her head past me to see her. I noticed that every eye which rested upon the beautiful fading girl wore an expression of pity.
The conversation became general, and the long and gleaming interior was filled with the hum of it, with the sounds of corks drawn, with the noise of knives and forks busily plied upon crockery ware. There was also a dull echo of wind, a dim hissing of broken and flying waters, that gave a singular effect to this hospitable picture of gentlemen and well-dressed ladies eating and drinking.
I listened to the conversation, but what I heard of it conveyed no meaning to my mind. For example, Sir Frederick Thompson spoke of having visited a certain London theatre a couple of nights before the vessel sailed.
‘I never saw such a full ’ouse,’ he said. ‘Yet it was Shakespeare—it was “’Amlet.” They clapped when Ophelia came on mad, but it was the scenery that gave the satisfaction. Without the scenery there would have been no ’ouse; and though I consider Shakespeare top-weight as a writer, what I say is, since it’s scenery that takes, why don’t managers draw it mild and give us plays easy to follow and written in the language that men and women speak?’
He seemed partly to address this speech to me, and I listened, but hardly understood him. Others talked of Australia and the growth of the colonies, of England, of emigration, of many such matters; but, so far as my understanding of their speech went, they might have discoursed in a foreign tongue. The captain, at the head of the table, spoke seldom, and then with a grave face and a sober voice. Occasionally he glanced at me. I do not doubt that many watched me, to remark how I behaved. Knowing that I had no memory, they might well wonder whether I should not often be at a loss, and stare to see if I knew what to do with my glass, my plate, and my napkin.
Before lunch was half over Mr. Wedmold and Mr. Clack, who immediately confronted Mrs. Webber, raised their voices in a discussion. Mrs. Lee, leaning behind me to her daughter, exclaimed: