which, even for a man, is considerable, we spoke no word, but only nodded
when some one of the promenaders noticed us. There was a bookmaker fresh
from the Melbourne races; an American, Colonel Ryder, whose eloquence had
carried him round the world; a stalwart squatter from Queensland;
a pretty widow, who had left her husband under the sods of Tasmania;
a brace of girls going to join their lovers and be married in England;
a few officers fleeing from India with their livers and their lives;
a family of four lanky lasses travelling "home" to school; a row of
affable ladies, who alternated between envy and gaiety and delight in,
and criticism of, their husbands; a couple of missionaries, preparing
to give us lectures on the infamous gods of the heathen,--gods which,
poor harmless little creatures! might be bought at a few annas a pint at
Aden or Colombo,--and on the Exodus and the Pharaohs--pleasures reserved
for the Red Sea; a commercial traveller, who arranged theatricals, and
cast himself for all the principal parts; a humorous and naive person who
industriously hinted at the opulence of his estates in Ireland; two
stately English ladies of title; a cheerful array of colonial knights and
judges off to Europe for a holiday; and many others, who made little
worlds unto themselves, called cliques by blunt people.

"To my mind, the most interesting persons on the ship," said Clovelly at
last, "are the bookmaker, Miss Treherne, and the lady with whom you have
just been talking--an exceptional type."

"An unusual woman, I fancy," was my reply. "But which is Miss Treherne?
I am afraid I am not quite sure."

He described her and her father, with whom I had talked--a London Q.C.,
travelling for his health, a notable man with a taste for science, who
spent his idle hours in reading astronomy and the plays of Euripides.