They provided this magnificent treat for me that day. It fell out thus: I overhung the rail in the head, looking down at the boiling dazzle there, watching with indescribable delight and wonder the beautiful sight of the cutwater of the ship, metalled high, sliding through the brine, bowing till the ivory-white lady that was her figure-head was depressed almost to the sip of the cloud of foam which the hurl of the bows sent roaring and flashing far ahead, to rush back in a singing, seething sheet a moment after when the ship's head lifted upon the next swelling heave, bright blue till it was charged and out-turned into a noise and splendour of thunder and snow. Mrs. Burke and the doctor looked down with me. My old nurse would sometimes turn an eye full of satisfaction upon my face, which I felt was glowing with the spirit this rushing ocean picture had kindled. I looked yearningly towards the bowsprit end and exclaimed:
'Oh, now, if I were a man, to be able to get out there and watch the ship coming at me!'
'Here comes Captain Burke,' said Mr. Owen.
He had arrived on deck just then, and, seeing us in the bows of the ship, was advancing.
'Are you going to paint a picture of the "Lady Emma," Miss Otway?' said he, coming to my side and looking down at the thick and giddy foam, roaring and spitting sometimes within arm's reach, and throbbing aft into a wake whose tail went out of sight in the windy blue haze.
'No.'
'You are studying every effect!'
'It is worth leaving home to see this!' said I. 'How fast are we sailing?'
'Thirteen knots an hour.'
'Miss Marie wishes she was a man, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke.