was waiting for her
to go on board the frigate. The bustle of preparation prevented any
further conversation. Donna Katerina assured Terence that he might rely
on being welcomed as a relative should he return to Trinidad, and was
equally civil to Jack when, in his usual hearty way, he wished his
friends good-bye. He was watched narrowly as he handed Stella into the
carriage, but the keenest eyes could not detect anything in his manner
beyond the ordinary respect due to a lady.

The captain had come to the landing-place to escort his guests on board
the frigate. They reached her side just as the sunset gun was fired.
Stella gave not the slightest start at the sound, but sat as unmoved as
her soldier father. Jack remarked the grace and, at the same time, the
confidence with which she stepped up the accommodation-ladder, and
walked along the deck as if well accustomed to ascending a ship's side.
"I never met a girl better fitted to be a heroine than she is," he
thought. "Still my sister Mary and Lucy are of the style I fancy best."

The young lady was followed by her only attendant, a black damsel,
carrying her dressing-case, and other articles, which nothing would
induce her to commit to the charge of the men who offered to take them.
"Missie Stella tell me not lose dem," she answered, with a knowing shake
of her head. "No, no, tank yoo."

Stella retired at an early hour to the cabin the captain had fitted up
for her, with a small one close to it for the faithful Polly. She
wished to be on deck, she said, to see the ship get under weigh in the
morning. She and the colonel were pretty freely discussed in the
gunroom and midshipmen's berth. All acknowledged that she was handsome,
but some thought her proud and haughty, and others that she was rather
slow, whilst Gerald was of opinion that his cousins beat her hollow, in
which Tom agreed with him heartily.

"Much more jolly girls they are," said Tom. "How they laughed at
Spider's antics! I only wish we may find a batch of such cousins in
every place we go to with as capital a country-house."

Terence pronounced her a Sphinx. Perhaps he was biassed by the opinion
the fair Maria had expressed. Jack did not altogether like to hear her
talked about, especially by the master and purser, or the lieutenant of
marines, who called her a monstrously fine woman. The colonel was fair
game. No one could make out who he was, what brought him out to that
part of the w