vicar inquired. 'I can see
nothing but old hulks, for the life of me.'

'Just behind that one,' said Knight; 'we shall soon be round under her.'

The object of their search was soon after disclosed to view--a great
lumbering form of inky blackness, which looked as if it had never known
the touch of a paint-brush for fifty years. It was lying beside just
such another, and the way on board was down a narrow lane of water
between the two, about a yard and a half wide at one end, and gradually
converging to a point. At the moment of their entry into this narrow
passage, a brilliantly painted rival paddled down the river like a
trotting steed, creating such a series of waves and splashes that
their frail wherry was tossed like a teacup, and the vicar and his wife
slanted this way and that, inclining their heads into contact with a
Punch-and-Judy air and countenance, the wavelets striking the sides of
the two hulls, and flapping back into their laps.

'Dreadful! horrible!' Mr. Swancourt murmured privately; and said aloud,
I thought we walked on board. I don't think really I should have come,
if I had known this trouble was attached to it.'

'If they must splash, I wish they would splash us with clean water,'
said the old lady, wiping her dress with her handkerchief.

'I hope it is perfectly safe,' continued the vicar.

'O papa! you are not very brave,' cried Elfride merrily.

'Bravery is only obtuseness to the perception of contingencies,' Mr.
Swancourt severely answered.

Mrs. Swancourt laughed, and Elfride laughed, and Knight laughed, in the
midst of which pleasantness a man shouted to them from some position
between their heads and the sky, and they found they were close to the
Juliet, into which they quiveringly ascended.

It having been found that the lowness of the tide would prevent their
getting off for an hour, the Swancourts, having nothing else to
do, allowed their eyes to idle upon men in blue jerseys performing
mysterious mending operations with tar-twine; they turned to look at
the dashes of lurid sunlight, like burnished copper stars afloat on the
ripples, which danced into and tantalized their vision; or listened to
the loud music of a steam-crane at work close by; or to sighing sounds
from the funnels of passing steamers, getting dead as they grew more
distant; or to shouts from the decks of different craft in their
vicinity, all of them assuming the form of 'Ah-he-hay!'

Half-past ten: not yet off