‘Well, it is good news indeed!’ cried she. ‘Mrs. Lee has told me what the captain said, and I am truly glad to know that there is no chance of your leaving the ship until your memory is able to point true to your own home. What think you of this bonnet? And what do you say to this cloak? I am sure the Lees, mother and daughter, are the very soul of goodness. But who could help being kind to one in your condition? So helpless! So lonely! And Mrs. Lee has settled that you’re not a Calthorpe. Well, I daresay she’s right. And yet, do you know that little City gentleman don’t look much of a fool either. But whatever you be you’re a born lady. There’s breeding in your voice--oh! I’ve got an ear for quality voices. The cloak’s a bit short, but it looks very well. Let me pin that veil for you.’ And now, being equipped for the deck, I ascended to the saloon. Mrs. Lee waited for me near the hatchway. She said that her daughter was sleeping, and then putting her hand with an affectionate gesture upon my arm she exclaimed: ‘Alice has told me what passed between you before lunch. I am sure she will be able to help you. She is my child, she is flesh of my flesh, yet I think of her as an angel of God, and His praises no angel in heaven could sing with a purer and holier heart, and He will forgive me for believing this.’ She released my arm, and bowed her head and stood silent a minute, struggling with emotion. We then mounted on to the deck. The scene was noble and inspiring. The high seas came brimming to the ship, their colour was sapphire, and as they rolled they broke into dazzling masses of foam. The stately swollen white clouds of the morning were still on high; they floated in slow processions across the masts which reeled solemnly as though to music. The sails upon the ship were few, and their iron-hard, distended concavities hummed like a ceaseless roll of military drums in their echoing of the pursuing thunder of the wind. The water roared in snowstorms from either bow as the great ship rushed onwards, and the broad and hissing furrow she left behind seemed to stream to the very horizon, lifting and falling straight as a line, like the scintillant scar of a shooting star on the cold blue heights of the night. A sail showed in the far windy distance; she was struggling northwards under narrow bands of canvas, and sometimes she would vanish out of sight behind the ridge of the sea, and sometimes she would be thrown up till the whole body of her was visible. Her hull was black and white, and a long length of copper flashed out like gold every time she rose to the summit of a billow.