"She--ah--rides very prettily," repeated the strong man as the companion stairs spurned him from them and he wound his arms round the nearest steward. "Damn prettily," said the necked officer. "I'm going to lie down. Never could stand the China seas." "Most refreshing thing in the world," said the strong man faintly. I took counsel purely with myself, which is to say, my stomach, and perceived that the worst would not befall me. "Come to the fo'c'sle, then, and feel the wind," said I to the strong man. The plover's-egg eyes of three yellowish-green girls were upon him. "With pleasure," said he, and I bore him away to where the cut-water was pulling up the scared flying-fishes as a spaniel flushes game. In front of us was the illimitable blue, lightly ridged by the procession of the big blind rollers. Up rose the stem till six feet of the red paint stood clear above the blue--from twenty-three feet to eighteen I could count as I leaned over. Then the sapphire crashed into splintered crystal with a musical jar, and the white spray licked the anchor channels as we drove down and down, sucking at the sea. I kept my eye upon the strong man, and I noticed that his mouth was slightly open, the better to inhale the rushing wind. When I looked a second time he was gone. The driven spray was scarcely quicker in its flight. My excellent stomach behaved with temperance and chastity. I enjoyed the fo'c'sle, and my delight was the greater when I reflected on the strong man. Unless I was much mistaken, he would know all about it in half an hour. I went aft, and a lull between two waves heard the petulant pop of a champagne cork. No one drinks champagne after tiffin except.... _It_. The strong man had ordered the champagne. There were bottles of it flying about the quarter-deck. The engaged couple were sipping it out of one glass, but their faces were averted like our parents of old. They were ashamed.