about the decks, that I believe she used to think the ship was alive
somehow--a sister or companion, going to the same place as herself. She
liked to be by the wheel, and in fine weather, I have often stood by the
man whose trick it was at the wheel, only to hear her, sitting near my
feet, talking to the ship. Never had a child such a doll before, I
suppose; but she made a doll of the Golden Mary, and used to dress her up
by tying ribbons and little bits of finery to the belaying-pins; and
nobody ever moved them, unless it was to save them from being blown away.

Of course I took charge of the two young women, and I called them "my
dear," and they never minded, knowing that whatever I said was said in a
fatherly and protecting spirit. I gave them their places on each side of
me at dinner, Mrs. Atherfield on my right and Miss Coleshaw on my left;
and I directed the unmarried lady to serve out the breakfast, and the
married lady to serve out the tea. Likewise I said to my black steward
in their presence, "Tom Snow, these two ladies are equally the mistresses
of this house, and do you obey their orders equally;" at which Tom
laughed, and they all laughed.

Old Mr. Rarx was not a pleasant man to look at, nor yet to talk to, or to
be with, for no one could help seeing that he was a sordid and selfish
character, and that he had warped further and further out of the straight
with time. Not but what he was on his best behaviour with us, as
everybody was; for we had no bickering among us, for'ard or aft. I only
mean to say, he was not the man one would have chosen for a messmate. If
choice there had been, one might even have gone a few points out of one's
course, to say, "No! Not him!" But, there was one curious inconsistency
in Mr. Rarx. That was, that he took an astonishing interest in the
child. He looked, and I may add, he was, one of the last of men to care
at all for a child, or to care much for any human creature. Still, he