OUR SENTIMENTAL GARDEN 



when suddenly there arose, from the next-door cabin, 

 sounds . . . Noeven in recollection these things are not 

 to be dwelt upon ! 



"My dear/ 7 said I to my companion, "let us talk and 

 drown the outcries of this shameless and abandoned 

 woman/ 7 



Fortunately I had a companion with whom conversation 

 is always as easy as it is interesting. We began to enjoy 

 our own pleasant humour very much, and did not allow a 

 moment's silence to fall between us, lest 

 We were travelling by North Wall / and when the placidity 

 of the Liffey odoriferously enfolded us, we emerged cheer- 

 fully on deck to join some friends, for the sake of whose 

 agreeable company we had chosen this particular route. 

 The dear little lady who was about to be our hostess we 

 found charitably administering dry biscuits to a very 

 dilapidated-looking, green-faced young woman with the 

 unmistakable appearance of but again, no ! 

 " Poor Mrs. Saunders has been feeling so faint/' said our 

 friend, with the cheerful sympathy of the good sailor. 

 We were introduced to the languid one. 

 "Poor thing/' we said, "you do look bad! Have you 

 been ill?" 



One is very crude in one's questions on board ship. 

 " Oh, no / not ill ! " She flung the suggestion from her 

 with an acid titter. Then rolling a jaundiced eye upon us : 

 "Were you ill?" 



" Oh, no," we said / " we quite enjoyed the passage." 

 The sufferer turned her glance from our brutality to the 

 sympathetic neighbour. 



" If I could have slept," she said plaintively. Then she 

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