Some of the passengers lay on deck, where they had stationed themselves the previous night, preferring its open air to the closeness of the cabins, in the event of rough weather. Rough weather they need not have feared. The passage had been perfectly calm; the sea smooth as a lake; not a breath of wind had helped the good ship on her course; steam had to do its full work. But for this dead calm, the fishing-craft would not be close in-shore, looking very much like a flock of sea-gulls. Had a breeze, ever so gentle, sprung up, they would have put out to more prolific waters. A noise, a shout, a greeting! and some of the passengers, already awake, but lying lazily, sprang up to see what caused it. It was a passing steamer, bound for the great metropolis which they had left not seventeen hours ago. The respective captains exchanged salutes from their places aloft, and the fine vessels flew past each other. “_Bon voyage! bon voyage!_” shouted out a little French boy to the retreating steamer. “We have had a fine passage, captain,” observed a gentleman who was stretching himself and stamping about the deck, after his night’s repose on the hard bench. “Middling,” responded the captain, to whom a dead calm was not quite so agreeable as it was to his passengers. “Should ha’ been in all the sooner for a breeze.” “How long will it be, now?” “A good time yet. Can’t go along as if we had wind at our back.” The steamer made good progress, however, in spite of the faithless wind. It glided up the Scheldt, and, by-and-by, the spire of Antwerp Cathedral was discerned, rising against the clear sky. Mrs. Channing, who had been one of those early astir, went back to her husband. He was lying where he had been placed when the vessel left St. Katherine’s Docks. “We shall soon be in, James. I wish you could see that beautiful spire. I have been searching for it ever so long; it is in sight, now. Hamish told me to keep a look-out for it.” “Did he?” replied Mr. Channing. “How did Hamish know it might be seen?” “From the guide-books, I suppose; or from hearsay. Hamish seems to know everything. What a good passage we have had!” “Ay,” said Mr. Channing. “What I should have done in a rough sea, I cannot tell. The dread of it has been pressing on me as a nightmare since our voyage was decided upon.” Mrs. Channing smiled. “Troubles seldom come from the quarter we anticipate them.” Later, when Mrs. Channing was once more leaning over the side of the vessel, a man came up and put a card into her hand, jabbering away in German at the same time. The Custom House officers had come on board then. “Oh, dear, if Constance were only here! It is for interpreting that we shall miss her,” thought Mrs. Channing. “I am sorry that I do not understand you,” she said, turning to the man.