"Could you have understood the real poet any better?" was the arch
response, and Hope had to acknowledge that, for all practical purposes,
the Angora Hafiz was as intelligible as his namesake.
CHAPTER IV.
INTRODUCTIONS.
When they went back upon deck Faith had the pacified Hafiz in her arms,
and was inclined to sympathize with her sister, who could not carry
Texas about in that manner. But Hope needed no consolation. "Possibly
I cannot, yet," she allowed, "but wait a while. I intend to tame
Texas, and then I shall have him to perch on my wrist like a falcon.
And, just now, I don't know that I care to be hampered by any sort of a
baby," laughing mischievously, for Faith looked quite motherly, with
the kitten wrapped in a fold of her cape.
They had come above to see the lighthouse and Hurst Castle, at the
opening into the Channel, which seemed to be held out from the mainland
by a long, thin arm of soil. The Channel here narrows to about a mile
in width, and these objects loom up conspicuously to the starboard of
the outbound steamer. As they stood watching from the hurricane deck,
to which they had ascended, and admiring not only the bright scene
before them, but also the splendor and cleanliness of their father's
ship, a boyish voice was heard to exclaim,
"Well, I've explored as far as they'll let me, and I say she's a dandy!
I believe she'll compare pretty well with the P. & O. liners, after
all, don't you, Bess?" And up through the companionway came a head in
a yachting-cap, followed by a slender boy in gray, with a frank, but
homely visage.
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