. Mr. Swancourt breathed a breath of
weariness, and looked at his fellow-travellers in general. Their faces
were certainly not worth looking at. The expression 'Waiting' was
written upon them so absolutely that nothing more could be discerned
there. All animation was suspended till Providence should raise the
water and let them go.

'I have been thinking,' said Knight, 'that we have come amongst the
rarest class of people in the kingdom. Of all human characteristics, a
low opinion of the value of his own time by an individual must be among
the strangest to find. Here we see numbers of that patient and happy
species. Rovers, as distinct from travellers.'

'But they are pleasure-seekers, to whom time is of no importance.'

'Oh no. The pleasure-seekers we meet on the grand routes are more
anxious than commercial travellers to rush on. And added to the loss of
time in getting to their journey's end, these exceptional people take
their chance of sea-sickness by coming this way.'

'Can it be?' inquired the vicar with apprehension. 'Surely not, Mr.
Knight, just here in our English Channel--close at our doors, as I may
say.'

'Entrance passages are very draughty places, and the Channel is like
the rest. It ruins the temper of sailors. It has been calculated by
philosophers that more damns go up to heaven from the Channel, in the
course of a year, than from all the five oceans put together.'

They really start now, and the dead looks of all the throng come to life
immediately. The man who has been frantically hauling in a rope that
bade fair to have no end ceases his labours, and they glide down the
serpentine bends of the Thames.

Anything anywhere was a mine of interest to Elfride, and so was this.

'It is well enough now,' said Mrs. Swancourt, after they had passed the
Nore, 'but I can't say I have cared for my voyage hitherto.' For being
now in the open sea a slight breeze had sprung up, which cheered her as
well as her two younger companions. But unfortunately it had a reverse
effect upon the vicar, who, after turning a sort of apricot jam colour,
interspersed with dashes of raspberry, pleaded indisposition, and
vanished from their sight.

The afternoon wore on. Mrs. Swancourt kindly sat apart by herself
reading, and the betrothed pair were left to themselves. Elfride clung
trustingly to Knight's arm, and proud was she to walk with him up
and down the deck, or to go forward, and leaning with him against the
forec