‘How tedious! We may have to wander for months about the ocean!’
‘It is always step by step, Miss Temple, in this life. Let us begin at the beginning, and quit this wreck, at any rate.’
‘All my luggage is in the Indiaman. How I am to manage I cannot conceive,’ said she, running her eyes over her dress, and lifting her hand to her hat.
‘Pray let no such consideration as dress trouble you. The experience will gain in romance from our necessities, and we shall be able to read “Robinson Crusoe” with new enjoyment.’
She faintly smiled, with just a hint of peevishness in the curl of her lip.
‘If this be romance, Mr. Dugdale, may my days henceforth, if God be merciful enough to preserve us, be steeped in the dullest prose.’
‘I wonder where Colledge and the cutter’s crew are?’ said I.
‘I do not think,’ she exclaimed, ‘if Mr. Colledge were in your place he would show your spirit.’
‘He was a great favourite of yours, Miss Temple.’
‘Not great. I rather liked him. I knew some of his connections. He was an amiable person. I did not know that he was engaged to be married.’