DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0030
4
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap. i
copper funnel, up which the steam went sighing as if that heart
would break.
About noon the last boat shoved off, the gangway curled itself
up, a voice from the paddle-boxes said quietly—" Go on ! "-—
and the vast vessel glided away as smoothly as a gondola.
Within the ship was at work the convulsive energy of four
hundred and fifty horse-power, that was to know no rest for three
thousand miles; but without, all was so calm and undisturbed,
that she might have seemed still at anchor but for the villas and
villages, and woods and lawns, that went scampering by, as if
running a steeple-chase to Salisbury. The beautiful Southamp-
ton Water, grim-looking Portsmouth, and the gentle Isle of
Wight, fled rapidly away behind us, and then the shores of Old
England bewail to fade from our view.
The first day of our voyage passed very silently away : many
were sea-sick, and more were sick at heart; but in the evening
there was a startling eruption of writing-desks, and a perfect
flutter of pens preparing for the Falmouth post-bag. I think I
see those eager scribes before me now: the man of business,
with his swift and steady quill; women, gracefully bending over
their twice-crossed notes (not the more legible, lady, for that
tear) ; and lonely little boys, biting their bran-new pen-holders,
and looking up to the ceiling in search of pleasant things to say
to some bereaved mother. Her only comfort, perhaps, was to
be that little scrawl, till her self-sacrificing heart was at rest for
ever, or success had gilded her child's far distant career.
While one end of the saloon was looking like a counting-
house, the other was occupied by a set of old stagers, whose
long-smothered conversation broke out with vehemence over
their brandy-and-water. These jolly old fellows seemed as if
no one had any claims upon their correspondence ; they were
father and mother, brother and sister, to themselves, and their
capacious waistcoats comprised their whole domestic circle.
The following day we were at Falmouth, and then we were at
eea.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap. i
copper funnel, up which the steam went sighing as if that heart
would break.
About noon the last boat shoved off, the gangway curled itself
up, a voice from the paddle-boxes said quietly—" Go on ! "-—
and the vast vessel glided away as smoothly as a gondola.
Within the ship was at work the convulsive energy of four
hundred and fifty horse-power, that was to know no rest for three
thousand miles; but without, all was so calm and undisturbed,
that she might have seemed still at anchor but for the villas and
villages, and woods and lawns, that went scampering by, as if
running a steeple-chase to Salisbury. The beautiful Southamp-
ton Water, grim-looking Portsmouth, and the gentle Isle of
Wight, fled rapidly away behind us, and then the shores of Old
England bewail to fade from our view.
The first day of our voyage passed very silently away : many
were sea-sick, and more were sick at heart; but in the evening
there was a startling eruption of writing-desks, and a perfect
flutter of pens preparing for the Falmouth post-bag. I think I
see those eager scribes before me now: the man of business,
with his swift and steady quill; women, gracefully bending over
their twice-crossed notes (not the more legible, lady, for that
tear) ; and lonely little boys, biting their bran-new pen-holders,
and looking up to the ceiling in search of pleasant things to say
to some bereaved mother. Her only comfort, perhaps, was to
be that little scrawl, till her self-sacrificing heart was at rest for
ever, or success had gilded her child's far distant career.
While one end of the saloon was looking like a counting-
house, the other was occupied by a set of old stagers, whose
long-smothered conversation broke out with vehemence over
their brandy-and-water. These jolly old fellows seemed as if
no one had any claims upon their correspondence ; they were
father and mother, brother and sister, to themselves, and their
capacious waistcoats comprised their whole domestic circle.
The following day we were at Falmouth, and then we were at
eea.