t held it bladder-like. She
had changed her gown, too, for a sort of Sunday dress of satin or some
such material. She curtseyed on entering, and took up her position
alongside of M'Cosh, where she stood viewing the company with an
austere gaze, which so harmonised with the dry, literal, sober stare of
the mate, that I had to turn my back upon her to save a second
explosion of laughter.

"Are we all ready?" said the little captain, in the voice of a man who
might hail his mate to tell him to prepare to put the ship about, and
M'Cosh mechanically answered:

"Ay, ay, sir, all ready."

On this the captain went to the table, where lay a big Church Service
in large type, and putting on his glasses, looked at us over them, as a
hint for us to take our places. He then began to read, so slowly that
I foresaw unless he skipped many of the passages we should be detained
half the morning in his cabin. He read with extravagant enjoyment of
the sound of his own voice, and constantly lifted his eyes, whilst he
delivered the sentences as though he were admonishing instead of
marrying us. Grace held her head hung, and I felt her trembling when I
took her hand. I had flattered myself that I should exhibit no
nervousness in such an ordeal as this, but though I was not sensible of
any disposition to tears, I must confess that my secret agitation was
incessantly prompting me to laughter of an hysterical sort, which I
restrained with struggles that caused me no small suffering. It is at
such times as these, perhaps, that the imagination is most
inconveniently active.

The others stood behind me; I could not see them; it would have eased
me, I think, had I been able to do so. The thought of M'Cosh's face,
the fancy of Miss Moggadore's cap grew dreadfully oppressive, through
my inability to vent myself of the emotions they induced. My distress
was increased by the mate's pronunciation of the word "Amen." He was
always late with it, as though waiting for the others to lead the way,
unless it was that he chose to take a "thocht" before committing
himself. My wretchedness was heightened by the effect of this lonely
Amen, whose belatedness he accentuated by the fervent manner in which
he breathed it out.

Yet, spite of the several grotesque conditions which entered into it,
this was a brief passage of experience that was by no means lacking in
romantic and even poetic beauty. The flashful trembling of the sunlit
sea was in the a