John Caldigate

nlike our usual life, more completely a life of itself, governed by its own

hat they may secure it, they assume indifference. They assume indifference, but are hard at work with their usual weapons. The men can do very well by themselves. For them there is drinking, smoking, cards, and various games; but the potency of female spells soon works upon them, and all who are worth anything are more or less in love by the end of the first week. Of course it must all come to an end when the port is reached. That is understood, though there may sometimes be mistakes. Most pathetic secrets are told with the consciousness that they will be forgotten as soon as the ship is left. And there is the whole day for these occupations. No work is required from any one. The lawyer does not go to his court, nor the merchant to

heir richer neighbours. But the love-making, and the fashion, and the mutiny against the fashion, were the same in one set as in the other. Our friends were at first subjected to an inconvenience which is always felt in such a position. They were known to have had saloon rather than second-class antecedents. Everybody had heard that they had been at Cambr

dressed according to the parts they were acting, and which they intended to act, as second-class passengers and future working miners. Any one knowing in such matters would have seen that they were over-dressed; for the

e,' said Caldigate, 'and have been l

ooking at

very attentive to the s

us, but she knows pretty nearly what we are saying by

ord or two to

did sh

struck me as talking better than

ys that she is going out to earn her bread; but when I asked her how, she either couldn't or wouldn't ans

remarkable woman, and certainly looked to be better than her gown, which was old and common enough. Caldigate had observed her frequently, and had been much struck by the w

ot remain he

be afraid of. And though nobody knows me, everybody knows enough of me not to think

k it wearisome?

for six weeks to come is a magnificent thing. If I get too tired of it I can throw myself overboard. You can't even do tha

been married to a ne'er-do-well husband, who had drank himself to death within a year of their marriage, and that she was now going out to the colony, probably,- so the old lady said who was the informant,- in search of a second hus

in her eye, and a courage about her mouth, which had made him think that, in spite of her appearance, she would be worth his attention - just for the voyage. When he had been speaking to herself they had been on the deck together, and it had been dusk and he had not been able to look her in the face; but while Shand had been speaking to him he had observed that she was very comely. And this was the more rem

ersation with her,' said

nravelled t

to be gentlemen and that she ought to be a lady. I told her that you and I were gentlemen, in spite of our trousers. "Ah," she said, "there comes the difference; I'm not a lady

ch a woman be to him? But at the bottom of all this there was something akin to jealousy. The woman was good-looking, and certainly clever, and was very interesting. Shand, for two or three evenings running, related his success; how Mrs. Smith had communicated to him the fact that she utterly despised those Cromptons, who were distant cousins of her late husband's, and with whom she had come on board; how she p

on't seem to care so very muc

irrepressible. 'I declared my intention of u

are not too

eople talk about on board ship except themselves? A woman who has a myster

elt that the poor woman was in coarse hands; and he thought that, had matters gone otherwise, h

men were going about in light pantaloons and linen jackets,- those on the quarter-deck at first beautifully clean and white, while our friends of the second cabin were less careful. The women, too, had got quit of their wraps, and lounged about the deck in light attire. During the bright hours of the day the aristocrats, in the stern, were shrouded from the sun by a delightful awning; but, forward, the passengers sought the shade of the loose idle sails, or screened themselves from the fierce rays as best they might among the hatchways and wood

re were penny readings, at which Shand was often the reader. And he smoked much and drank somewhat with those who smoked and drank. The awe at first inspired by his university superiority and supposed rank in the world had faded almost into nothing, but by Caldigate, unconsciously, much of this had b

racy in the after-part of the vessel. From among the second-class passengers, two fiddlers and a flute player had been procured, who formed the band. At sea you have always to look for your musicians among the second-class passengers. And now under the awning young and old were standing up, and making themselves happy beneath the starlight and the g

ey trod, and forbidden to him; and though there was probably not a girl or a dancing married woman there who would not have been proud to stand up with Mr. Caldigate of Folking, there was not one

ll-managed that it would have been noticed for its peculiar sweetness if coming from any high-bred lady. He turned round and f

ng,' he said, 'but it is one of

way. It will come back to you, in half-a-dozen years, perhap

e than t

e pleasure-seeking years of our lives are much shorter. We burst out into full flowering early in o

hick stalk,

e while my stalk is still thin and sens

te know what

honour, and, sinking at twenty-five or thirty, could come up from out of the waters at thirty-five as capable of enjoyment and almost as fresh as ever. But a woman does not bear submersion. She is draggled ever afterwards. She must hide everything by a