"Do you call that an excitement? Where have you lived?"

"Well, a surprise, then. But _would_ we have been better if it had
been madame who looked in?"

The picture called up by this question was so appalling that they
shuddered and forgot their little grudge against Miss Child, who was
not so bad when you were feeling well, except that she had odd ways of
looking at things, and laughed when nobody else could see anything to
laugh at.

"Thank heaven, she's a bad sailor!" Miss Devereux cried.

"Thank heaven, all the other women on board are bad sailors," added
Win.

"If madame was well she'd think _we_ ought to be," said Miss Carroll.
"She'd dock our pay every time we--- Oh, _this_ is bad enough, but if
she was well it would be a million times worse!"

"Could anything be worse?" Miss Tyndale pitifully questioned, for just
then the ship was sliding down the side of a wave as big as a
millionaire's house.

"Yes, it would be worse if we were wearing our waists slender this
year," said Win.

"Down, down, wallow, wallow, jump!" was the program the _Monarchic_
carried out for the twentieth time in half as many minutes. Slender
waists! Oh, horrible to think of, unless you broke in two and death