Miss Mavis turned out, in sea-phrase, early; for the next morning I saw
her come up only a short time after I had finished my breakfast, a
ceremony over which I contrived not to dawdle. She was alone and Jasper
Nettlepoint, by a rare accident, was not on deck to help her. I went to
meet her--she was encumbered as usual with her shawl, her sun-umbrella
and a book--and laid my hands on her chair, placing it near the stern of
the ship, where she liked best to be. But I proposed to her to walk a
little before she sat down, and she took my arm after I had put her
accessories into the chair. The deck was clear at that hour and the
morning light gay; one had an extravagant sense of good omens and
propitious airs. I forget what we spoke of first, but it was because I
felt these things pleasantly; and not to torment my companion nor to test
her, that I couldn't help exclaiming cheerfully after a moment, as I have
mentioned having done the first day: "Well, we're getting on, we're
getting on!"
"Oh yes, I count every hour."
"The last days always go quicker," I said, "and the last hours--!"
"Well, the last hours?" she asked; for I had instinctively checked
myself.
"Oh one's so glad then that it's almost the same as if one had arrived.
Yet we ought to be grateful when the elements have been so kind to us," I
added.
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