"A thousand pardons! my dear Miss Gerald," said the transgressor. "But what can a man say when he hears of such puppyism? This is my third voyage with that young man, and he has been developing into the full-grown puppy with the greatest rapidity."
"You have no fine feeling, Campion," said Mrs. Crawford. "You have got no sympathy for those who are artistically sensitive. But hush! here is the offending person herself, and with such a hat! Now admit that to look at her sends a cold shudder through you."
"I think her a devilish pretty little thing, by gad," said the doctor.
The young lady with the pink dress and the blue ribbon appeared, wearing the additional horror of a hat lined with yellow and encircled with mighty flowers.
"Something must be done to suppress her," said Mrs. Crawford decisively. "Surely such people must have a better side to their natures that one may appeal to."
"I doubt it, Mrs. Crawford," said Mr. Harwood, with only the least tinge of sarcasm in his voice. "I admit that one might not have been in utter despair though the dress was rather aggressive, but I cannot see anything but depravity in that hat with those floral splendours."
"But what is to be done?" said the lady. "Mr. Glaston would, no doubt, advocate making a Jonah of that young person for the sake of saving the rest of the ship's company. But, however just that might be, I do not suppose it would be considered strictly legal."
"Many acts of justice are done that are not legal," replied Harwood gravely. "From a legal standpoint, Cain was no murderer--his accuser being witness and also judge. He would leave the court without a stain on his character nowadays. Meantime, major, suppose we have a smoke on the bridge."
"He fancies he has said something clever," remarked Mrs. Crawford when he had walked away; and it must be confessed that Mr. Harwood had a suspicion to that effect.
```For he himself is subject to his birth:
```Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
```The safety and the health of this whole state,
```And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
```Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
_Osric_.... Believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing; indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card... of gentry.
