were likely to let out anything before her! Mrs Anthony had on a
dressing-gown of some grey stuff with red facings and a thick red cord
round her waist. Her hair was down. She looked a child; a pale-faced
child with big blue eyes and a red mouth a little open showing a glimmer
of white teeth. The light fell strongly on her as she came up to the
end of the table. A strange child though; she hardly affected one like
a child, I remember. Do you know," exclaimed Mr Powell, who clearly
must have been, like many seamen, an industrious reader, "do you know
what she looked like to me with those big eyes and something appealing
in her whole expression. She looked like a forsaken elf. Captain
Anthony had moved towards her to keep her away from my end of the table,
where the tray was. I had never seen them so near to each other before,
and it made a great contrast. It was wonderful, for, with his beard cut
to a point, his swarthy, sunburnt complexion, thin nose and his lean
head there was something African, something Moorish in Captain Anthony.
His neck was bare; he had taken off his coat and collar and had drawn on
his sleeping jacket in the time that he had been absent from the saloon.
I seem to see him now. Mrs Anthony too. She looked from him to me--I
suppose I looked guilty or frightened--and from me to him, trying to
guess what there was between us two. Then she burst out with a `What
has happened?' which seemed addressed to me. I mumbled `Nothing!
Nothing, ma'am,' which she very likely did not hear.

"You must not think that all this had lasted a long time. She had taken
fright at our behaviour and turned to the captain pitifully. `What is
it you are concealing from me?' A straight question--eh? I don't know
what answer the captain would have made. Before he could even raise his
eyes to her she cried out `Ah! Here's papa!' in a sharp tone of relief,
but directly afterwards she looked to me as if she were holding her
breath with apprehension. I was so interested in her that, how shall I
say it, her exclamation made no connection in my brain at first. I also
noticed that she had sidled up a little nearer to Captain Anthony,
before it occurred to me to turn my head. I can tell you my neck
stiffened in the twisted position from the shock of actually seeing that
old man! He had dared! I suppose you think I ought to have looked upon
him as mad. But I couldn't. It would have been certainly easier. But
I