ON DECK

THROUGHOUT the long summer day a gentle excitement had fluttered the
hearts of those ladies, young, or not so young, who had received
invitations to the ball on board the "Consternation" that night. The
last touches were given to creations on which had been spent skill,
taste, and money. Our three young women, being most tastefully and
fashionably attired, were in high spirits, which state of feeling was
exhibited according to the nature of each; Sabina rather stately in
her exaltation; Dorothy quiet and demure; while Katherine, despite her
mother's supplications, would not be kept quiet, but swung her
graceful gown this way and that, practising the slide of a waltz, and
quoting W. R. Gilbert, as was her custom. She glided over the floor in
rhythm with her chant.

"When I first put this uniform on
I said, as I looked in the glass,
'It's one to a million
That any civilian
My figure and form will surpass.'"

Meanwhile, in a room downstairs that good-natured veteran Captain
Kempt was telling the latest stories to his future son-in-law, a young
officer of the American Navy, who awaited, with dutiful impatience,
the advent of the serene Sabina. When at last the ladies came down the
party set out through the gathering darkness of this heavenly summer
night for the private pier from which they were privileged, because of
Captain Kempt's official standing, to voyage to the cruiser on the
little revenue cutter "Whip-poor-will," which was later on to convey