The ocean lay peacefully about them,
its color almost an indigo, so deeply blue was it in the shadow of the
vessel, but out a little way silvered by the vertical sun, which shone
with a blinding splendor that made colored eye-glasses a relief to the
dazzled vision.
It is in such weather that mischief breeds on shipboard, and gossip is
rife. The idle passengers, by this time mostly on speaking terms,
begin to let the common metal of their real make-up show through the
nickel-plating of the first interchange of courtesies.
There was a group whom our special friends had not yet mingled with
quite freely, though always meeting them in pleasant fashion, but as
everybody clustered sociably on the forward deck, this morning, anxious
to catch the ship's own breeze, if no other, they might naturally
become better acquainted. Of these only a few affect our little
history, therefore need description; first, a mother and two daughters
going out to the husband and father in India. Mrs. Windemere was a
little woman with an habitually scared expression and retiring manner,
but her daughters, both well towards thirty, must have taken after the
father, for they were domineering with her and self-assertive
everywhere. They claimed relationship with some person who bore a
title, and were given to talking a good deal about their aristocratic
relatives, and they dressed conspicuously, demanded constant attention
from any gentlemen present, and were full of news and rumors.
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