Charley made his bow, winking at me and vanishing. "Just like him," said Hannah. "There's a good deal of truth in what he says, Hannah." "Well, I like the old ways best," said Hannah. Poor old thing, I could not but pet her and comfort her. She gave me her address. She was going to live with a cousin, and if ever I wanted a home, and was disposed to quarrel with my step-mother, she would take me in--that she would. As I had no intention of quarrelling with my step-mother--for it is quite impossible for any one to have a completely one-sided quarrel--I told Hannah that all I could hope to do in the future was to visit her a good deal. In the end I told her that I would write her long letters from Paris, which quieted her a good bit. She kissed me, and when she went away I did feel, somehow, that the old life was really gone. The old life! It quite went the next morning when I found myself on board the steamer which was to convey me from Dover to Calais. I stood with Hermione on one side and Augusta on the other, looking at the fast-receding waves as the gallant boat plied its way through them. Our chaperon, a dull, quiet-looking woman, who only spoke broken English, took little or no notice of us. Augusta's eyes were fixed on the distant horizon. Occasionally I heard her murmuring lines of verse to herself. Once she glanced at me, and I saw that her eyes were full of tears. "What is it?" I said. She immediately repeated with great emphasis: "_And where are they_? And where art thou, My country?" "Oh," I cried, "don't say any more! We are not in the humour for poetry." "Of course we're not," said Hermione, glancing at her. "I was quoting," said Augusta. "I was thinking, not about what Lord Byron thought when he spoke of ancient Greece, but of all that I was leaving behind in London." "And what are you leaving behind that is so specially valuable, Augusta?" I asked. "Your father's lectures," she replied. She turned once more and looked at the horizon. "Don't worry her," said Hermione in a low tone to me. "I wonder if she'll ever get over it," I said. Hermione and I began to pace slowly up and down the deck. "I cannot imagine why my step-mother was so anxious that she should come with us," I said. "Because she felt that it was absolutely essential that Augusta should see another side of life. Dear, dear, I do feel excited! I wonder how we shall like the life. Don't frown, Dumps; you surely needn't worry about Augusta. She has made a kind of king of your father. She believes him to be all that is heroic and noble and majestic in life. It is really a most innocent admiration; let her keep it." "Yes, of course, if she likes," I said. The air was cold. I wrapped the warm fur cloak which my step-mother had insisted upon giving me for the voyage tightly round me, and sat down on one of the deck-seats. By-and-by Augusta tottered forward. "It is strange how difficult it is to use your sea-legs," she said.