ess wanderings; and, mechanically she paused and
looked on dreamily at the bustle and confusion which reigned there.
Perhaps the presence of the sheep and cattle attracted her: she felt
drawn to them by sympathy with their hustled and hurried condition,
which so nearly resembled her own.

With one hand resting on a rail, and a bag in the other, she watched
the men as they drove the cattle up the gangways or lowered huge casks
and bales into the hold. A big, fat man, with a slouch hat on the back
of his head and a pipe in the corner of his mouth--which did not
prevent him shouting and bawling at the men and the animals--lurched
here and there like one of the casks, and in the midst of his shouting
and bawling, he every now and then glanced at a watch of the frying-pan
order.

It was evident even to the inexperienced Ida, that the vessel was about
to start; the sailors were rushing about on deck in the haste and
excitement of ordered disorder, chains were clanking, and ropes and
pulleys were shrieking; and a steam whistle shrieked at intervals and
added to the multitudinous noises.

"Poor sheep, poor bulls!" murmured Ida, as the last of the beasts were
driven up the gangway and disappeared. "Perhaps you have come from
another Herondale! Do you remember, do you look back, as I do?"

She drew back, for the big man suddenly lurched in her direction, and,
indeed, almost, against her.

"Beg pardon, miss," he said, touching his slouch hat. "Anything I can
do for you, anybody you're looking for?"

"No, oh, no!" said Ida, blushing and turning away. Mr. Joffler, for it
was that genial Australian, nodded and stretched his moon-like face in
a smile.

"Thought you'd come to say 'good-bye' to someone, p'raps. Wish it was
me! Though, if it was, I've an idea that I should stay on--air or no
air--and I'm blest if there ain't precious little about this morning!
Hi, there! All ready? Bless it all, we'll be too late for the tide if
he don't come," he said to the captain, who stood with one foot on the
taffrail, an expression of impatience on his weather-beaten face.

"Like enough he ain't comin', Mr. Joffler," he said. "Them kind o'
gents is always slippery."

"I dessay. Though I didn't think as this one was one of that kind. Too
much grit about him--ah, and I was not mistaken! Here he is! Get ready
there!"

He turned, and Ida, instinctively turning with him, saw a tall figure
clad in a serge suit making its way quickly through