'
'Be on the alert then, and Captain Parkes and I will try to oblige you.'
'At any rate you have made it impossible for me to sleep. I shall stay
with Lady Kirkbank in the saloon. Good-night, again.'
'Good-night.'
CHAPTER XXXIX.
IN STORM AND DARKNESS.
Lesbia found Lady Kirkbank prostrate on a low divan in the saloon,
sleepless, and very cross. The atmosphere reeked with red lavender,
sal-volatile, eau de Cologne, and brandy, which latter remedy poor
Georgie had taken freely in her agonies. Kibble, the faithful Grasmere
girl, sat by the divan, fanning the sufferer with a large Japanese fan.
Rilboche had naturally, as a Frenchwoman, succumbed utterly to her own
feelings, and was moaning in her berth, wailing out every now and then
that she would never have taken service with Miladi had she suspected
her to be capable of such cruelty as to take her to live for weeks upon
the sea.
If this was the state of affairs now while the ocean was only gently
stirred, what would it be by-and-by if the tempest should really come?
'What can you be thinking of, staying on deck all night with those men?'
exclaimed Lady Kirkbank, peevishly.
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