“Progressing--progressing; we are going back!” she said, impatiently.
“Give me your hand,” he said, abruptly, “we will have a run to restore your good-humour.”
Swiftly he rushed her down the long decks, till, panting and breathless, they leaned against a door, and she echoed his recent laughter. She could not help it. His drooping head and hand on his heart were so irresistibly comical, and in such amusing contrast to his usually dignified deportment.
“That’s good,” he remarked, approvingly; “it is worth a kingdom to see your face light up in that way. Now will it please your ladyship to continue merry and to have some breakfast?”
Nina followed him to the dining-saloon. On entering it he said: “No ladies this morning; just what I predicted. Mrs. Grayley is not, Lady Forrest is not, only a handful of men at the table. So if you open your obstinate little mouth you will have to talk to me, Red Riding Hood.”
Nina silently took her place with Captain Eversleigh opposite her, and Mr. Delessert next her. She would feel very lonely without any members of her own sex, and as for the staring eyes of that red lobster, Sir Hervey Forrest, she would not meet them. So she shyly kept her head bent over her plate until forced to lift it by the prolonged catastrophe of breakfast.
The heavy pitching of the _Merrimac_ caused the dishes to slide gracefully from one end of the table to the other. However, by way of change, the ship occasionally abandoned the rising and falling motion, and, taking a sudden and unexpected roll, caused a number of the articles on the table to jump frantically over the guards and precipitate themselves into the passengers’ laps.
When Captain Eversleigh received fair in the chest a loaf of bread that sent his eye-glass dashing through the air and thoroughly upset his usual British equanimity, Nina gave vent to her feelings of amusement by indulging in a burst of uncontrollable girlish laughter.
The subject of her amusement glanced benevolently at her, and the other semi-seasick, preoccupied, and grumbling men at the table listened appreciatively to the sound of the fresh, clear young voice, some of them even joining in with her.
Captain Fordyce looked on, well pleased to have her admired, but suddenly exclaimed: “Take _care_, Nina Stephana!”