'Dreadful! horrible!' Mr. Swancourt murmured privately; and said
aloud, I thought we walked on board. I don't think really I
should have come, if I had known this trouble was attached to it.'
'If they must splash, I wish they would splash us with clean
water,' said the old lady, wiping her dress with her handkerchief.
'I hope it is perfectly safe,' continued the vicar.
'O papa! you are not very brave,' cried Elfride merrily.
'Bravery is only obtuseness to the perception of contingencies,'
Mr. Swancourt severely answered.
Mrs. Swancourt laughed, and Elfride laughed, and Knight laughed,
in the midst of which pleasantness a man shouted to them from some
position between their heads and the sky, and they found they were
close to the Juliet, into which they quiveringly ascended.
It having been found that the lowness of the tide would prevent
their getting off for an hour, the Swancourts, having nothing else
to do, allowed their eyes to idle upon men in blue jerseys
performing mysterious mending operations with tar-twine; they
turned to look at the dashes of lurid sunlight, like burnished
copper stars afloat on the ripples, which danced into and
tantalized their vision; or listened to the loud music of a steam-
crane at work close by; or to sighing sounds from the funnels of
passing steamers, getting dead as they grew more distant; or to
shouts from the decks of different craft in their vicinity, all of
them assuming the form of 'Ah-he-hay!'
Half-past ten: not yet off.
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