The object of their search was soon after disclosed to view--a great lumbering form of inky blackness,which looked as if it had never known the touch of a paint-brush for fifty years.It was lying beside just such another,and the way on board was down a narrow lane of water between the two,about a yard and a half wide at one end,and gradually converging to a point.At the moment of their entry into this narrow passage,a brilliantly painted rival paddled down the river like a trotting steed,creating such a series of waves and splashes that their frail wherry was tossed like a teacup,and the vicar and his wife slanted this way and that,inclining their heads into contact with a Punch-and-Judy air and countenance,the wavelets striking the sides of the two hulls,and flapping back into their laps.
Dreadful!horrible!Mr.Swancourt murmured privately;and said aloud,I thought we walked on board.I dont think really I should have come,if I had known this trouble was attached to it.
If they must splash,I wish they would splash us with clean water,said the old lady,wiping her dress with her handkerchief.
I hope it is perfectly safe,continued the vicar.
O papa!you are not very brave,cried Elfride merrily.
Bravery is only obtuseness to the perception of contingencies,Mr.Swancourt severely answered.
Mrs.Swancourt laughed,and Elfride laughed,and Knight laughed,in the midst of which pleasantness a man shouted to them from some position between their heads and the sky,and they found they were close to the Juliet,into which they quiveringly ascended.
It having been found that the lowness of the tide would prevent their getting off for an hour,the Swancourts,having nothing else to do,allowed their eyes to idle upon men in blue jerseys performing mysterious mending operations with tar-twine;they turned to look at the dashes of lurid sunlight,like burnished copper stars afloat on the ripples,which danced into and tantalized their vision;or listened to the loud music of a steam-crane at work close by;or to sighing sounds from the funnels of passing steamers,getting dead as they grew more distant;or to shouts from the decks of different craft in their vicinity,all of them assuming the form of Ah-he-hay!
Half-past ten:not yet off.Mr.Swancourt breathed a breath of weariness,and looked at his fellow-travellers in general.Their faces were certainly not worth looking at.The expression Waitingwas written upon them so absolutely that nothing more could be discerned there.All animation was suspended till Providence should raise the water and let them go.
I have been thinking,said Knight,that we have come amongst the rarest class of people in the kingdom.Of all human characteristics,a low opinion of the value of his own time by an individual must be among the strangest to find.Here we see numbers of that patient and happy species.Rovers,as distinct from travellers.
But they are pleasure-seekers,to whom time is of no importance.
Oh no.The pleasure-seekers we meet on the grand routes are more anxious than commercial travellers to rush on.And added to the loss of time in getting to their journeys end,these exceptional people take their chance of sea-sickness by coming this way.
Can it be?inquired the vicar with apprehension.Surely not,Mr.Knight,just here in our English Channel--close at our doors,as I may say.
Entrance passages are very draughty places,and the Channel is like the rest.It ruins the temper of sailors.It has been calculated by philosophers that more damns go up to heaven from the Channel,in the course of a year,than from all the five oceans put together.
They really start now,and the dead looks of all the throng come to life immediately.The man who has been frantically hauling in a rope that bade fair to have no end ceases his labours,and they glide down the serpentine bends of the Thames.
Anything anywhere was a mine of interest to Elfride,and so was this.
It is well enough now,said Mrs.Swancourt,after they had passed the Nore,but I cant say I have cared for my voyage hitherto.For being now in the open sea a slight breeze had sprung up,which cheered her as well as her two younger companions.But unfortunately it had a reverse effect upon the vicar,who,after turning a sort of apricot jam colour,interspersed with dashes of raspberry,pleaded indisposition,and vanished from their sight.
The afternoon wore on.Mrs.Swancourt kindly sat apart by herself reading,and the betrothed pair were left to themselves.Elfride clung trustingly to Knights arm,and proud was she to walk with him up and down the deck,or to go forward,and leaning with him against the forecastle rails,watch the setting sun gradually withdrawing itself over their stern into a huge bank of livid cloud with golden edges that rose to meet it.
She was childishly full of life and spirits,though in walking up and down with him before the other passengers,and getting noticed by them,she was at starting rather confused,it being the first time she had shown herself so openly under that kind of protection.I expect they are envious and saying things about us,dont you?she would whisper to Knight with a stealthy smile.
Oh no,he would answer unconcernedly.Why should they envy us,and what can they say?
Not any harm,of course,Elfride replied,except such as this:
"How happy those two are!she is proud enough now."What makes it worse,she continued in the extremity of confidence,I heard those two cricketing men say just now,"Shes the nobbiest girl on the boat."But I dont mind it,you know,Harry.
I should hardly have supposed you did,even if you had not told me,said Knight with great blandness.
She was never tired of asking her lover questions and admiring his answers,good,bad,or indifferent as they might be.The evening grew dark and night came on,and lights shone upon them from the horizon and from the sky.
Now look there ahead of us,at that halo in the air,of silvery brightness.Watch it,and you will see what it comes to.
