knocked at the door, still
in her berth, the lower one--from which the upper shelf had been lifted
so as to afford her room and air--looking very Oriental and handsomer
than I ever had seen her, in her bright Madras night-turban and fine
white cambric wrapper richly trimmed.

Her face broke into smiles as soon as she beheld me; and she invited me,
in a way not to be resisted, so resolute and yet so kindly was it, to
partake with her of the hot coffee her maid was just handing her in bed,
in a small gilded cup, a portion of the service on the stand beside her.

"It is our Southern custom, you know, Miss Harz--always our _cafe noir_
before breakfast, as a safeguard against malaria. To be sure, there is
nothing of that sort to be apprehended at sea, but still habits are
inveterate; second nature, as the moralists and copy-books say, as if
there ever could be more than one. What nonsense these wiseacres talk,
to be sure! But there is cream, you see, for those who like it--boiled
down and bottled for the use of the children before leaving home--one of
Dominica's notions;" and here the smiling maid, with her little,
respectful courtesy, tendered me a reviving cup of Miss Lamarque's
morning beverage, Mocha, made to the last point of perfection, dripped
and filtered over a spirit-lamp by Dominica, the skillful and
neat-handed.

"But you are very pale to-day, my child--what on earth can be the
matter?--There, Dominica, I thought I heard Florry cry! Go and help
Caliste get the children ready for a trot upon deck before breakfast,
and don't forget to give each one a gill of cream and a biscuit--or,
stay, twice as much for the two elder before they go up. It may be some
time before they get their regular morning meal.--They have to wait, you
know, Miss Harz, which is such rank injustice where children are
concerned. Patience never belongs to unreasoning creatures, unless an
instinct, as with animals; men have to learn its lessons through the
teachings of experience--that strictest of school-masters. Now, you see,
I have my lecturing-cap on, and am almost equal to you or Dr. Lardner
in my way. But it takes you to define fascination! I suppose Mrs.
Heavyside, however, could help you there--for nothing short of
witchcraft could account to me for her elopement with that dreary man!
To leave her sweet children, too, as if all the men on earth could be
worth to a true mother her teething baby's little toe or finger!"

"Would she neve