"How strange," she said, speaking in the whisper in which our conversation had been carried on, "to find oneself destitute,--without even the commonest necessaries! When the captain of the _Cecilia_ said we were sinking, papa ran with me out of the cabin. We did not think of putting on our hats, nor of saving anything but our lives." She turned to look at her father, closed the door tenderly, and accompanied me on deck. The morning was now advanced. The day was still very bright; and the wonderful blue of the heavens lost nothing of its richness from contrast with the stately and swelling clouds--pearl-coloured where they faced the sun, and with here and there a rainbow on their skirts, and centres of creamy white--which sailed solemnly over it. The breeze had freshened, but the swell had greatly subsided, and the sea was almost smooth, with brilliant little waves chasing it. The ship was stretching finely along the water, all sail set and every sail drawing. On our lee beam was the canvas of a big ship, her hull invisible; and astern of her I could just make out the faint tracing of the smoke of a steamer upon the sky. The sun shone warm, but not too warm; the strong breeze was sweet and soft; the ship's motion steady, and her aspect a glorious picture of white and rounded canvas, taut rigging delicately interlaced, and gleaming decks and glittering brass-work. The blue water sang a racing chorus at the bows, and the echo died upon the broad and bubbling wake astern. I ran my eye forwards upon the men on the forecastle. Most of the crew were congregated there, lounging, squatting, smoking--no man doing any work. I wondered, not at this, but that they should be so orderly and keep their place. They might have come aft had they pleased, swarmed into the cuddy, occupied the cabins; for the ship was theirs. Since they acted with so much decency, could they not be won over from their leader's atrocious project? If I went among them, holding this girl, now at my side, by the hand, and pleaded for her life, if not for my own, would they not spare her? would not some among them be moved by her beauty and her helplessness?