that art could achieve; while I confess the views in the mountains have
ever appeared to want something that the mind can imagine."

Mrs. Drewett, though a respectable, was a common-place woman. She belonged
to the vast class that do most of their thinking by proxy; and it was a
sort of heresy in her eyes to fancy anything could surpass the Highlands.
Poor Mrs. Drewett! She was exceedingly cockney, without having the
slightest suspicion of it. _Her_ best ought to be everybody else's best.
She combated Lucy's notion warmly, therefore, protesting that the
Highlands _could_ not have a superior. This is a sort of argument it is
not easy to overcome; and her companion was content to admire the scene
before her, in silence, after urging one or two reasons, in support of her
opinion, in her own quiet, unpretending manner.

I overheard this little argument, and was a close observer of the manner
of the parlies. Mrs. Drewett was extremely indulgent, even while warmest,
seeming to me to resist Lucy's opinion as an affectionate mother would
contend with the mistaken notions of a very favourite child. On the other
hand, Lucy appeared confiding, and spoke as the young of her sex are most
apt to do, when they utter their thoughts to ears they feel must be
indulgent.

A sunset cannot last for ever; and even this, sweet as it had been, soon
became tame and tasteless to me. As the ladies now disappeared, I
determined to anchor, the wind failing, and the tide coming ahead. Marble
and myself had a sort of state-room fitted up for us in the hold; and
thither I was glad to retire, standing really in need of rest, after the
terrible exertions of that day. What passed in the cabins that evening, I
had no opportunity of knowing, though I heard laughing, and happy female
voices, through the bulkheads, hours after my own head was on its pillow.