Smithson's steward acting as his subordinate. This great man grumbled
sorely at the smallness of his surroundings; for the most luxurious
yacht was a poor substitute for the spacious kitchens and storerooms and
stillrooms of the London mansion. There was a cabin for Lady Kirkbank's
Rilboche and Lady Lesbia's Kibble, where the two might squabble at their
leisure; in a word, everything had been done that forethought could do
to make the yacht as perfect a place of sojourn as any floating
habitation, from Noah's Ark to the Orient steamers, had ever been made.
It was between four and five upon a delicious July afternoon that Lady
Kirkbank and her charge came on board. The maids and the luggage had
been sent a day in advance, so that everything might be in its place,
and the empty boxes all stowed away, before the ladies arrived. They had
nothing to do but walk on board and fling themselves into the low
luxurious chairs ready for them on the deck, a little wearied by the
heat and dust of a railway journey, and with that delicious sense of
languid indifference to all the cares of life which seems to be in the
very atmosphere of a perfect summer afternoon.
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