FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 5 



pany total to four thousand souls afloat to-night on 

 the heaving ocean, some sleeping serenely, others 

 tossing sleepless in sickly memory of happier times 

 on land, others, again, feeding the fires and lubri- 

 cating the pistons that enable the graceful monster 

 to plough her way inexorably to the goal. Already 

 at Queenstown she fretted at her anchors with a 

 fai failli attendre impatience, and as soon as she 

 was clear of the land a heavy beam roll caught her 

 on the bow, and, despite her enormous bulk, she 

 had to own the tyranny of the inclined plane. The 

 concession made vacancies that night at table. In 

 the middle of the ship, soft-voiced stewardesses 

 gently raise thick curtains and say that dinner will 

 be up in a minute. It usually is. Fore and aft 

 there is neither curtain nor stewardess, but one 

 sufferer leans across a neighbour of different race 

 and obeys the irresistible. Everything comes up, 

 even the moon at last, though few pay heed to her 

 beauty as she sails across her kingdom. 



The men are either seasick or bridge-mad. In 

 the aromatic fog of the smoke-room, honest fellows 

 rub shoulders with sharpers and, regardless of the 

 caution posted conspicuously on the overmantel, 

 lose their money to beguile the tedium of the 

 voyage. The lounge, luxurious meeting-place of 

 beauty and tobacco, is deserted this second night, 

 for the ladies are either ill or else writing on 

 pictorial postcards purchased on board. 



One ocean crossing is like another. A trip 

 that lasts eight days is too long for anyone but a 

 criminal fleeing from justice to be content with his 

 own company ; too short to foster social intercourse, 

 save among those admitted to the freemasonry of 



