She did indeed attempt one remark,
and Master Hardy, with a horrified expression of outraged piety, said
"H'sh," and shook his head at her. It was almost more than flesh and
blood could bear, and when the unobservant Mrs. Kingdom asked her for the
text on the way home her reply nearly cost her the loss of her dinner.
The _Conqueror,_ under its new commander, sailed on the day following.
Mr. Wilks watched it from the quay, and the new steward observing him
came to the side, and holding aloft an old pantry-cloth between his
finger and thumb until he had attracted his attention, dropped it
overboard with every circumstance of exaggerated horror. By the time a
suitable retort had occurred to the ex-steward the steamer was half a
mile distant, and the extraordinary and unnatural pantomime in which he
indulged on the edge of the quay was grievously misinterpreted by a
nervous man in a sailing boat.
[Illustration: "Mr. Wilks watched it from the quay."]
Master Hardy had also seen the ship out, and, perched on the extreme end
of the breakwater, he remained watching until she was hull down on the
horizon.
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