Schmidt and his
friends. He had to be content with a view of the most exquisite back
and shoulders that good fortune had ever allowed him to gaze upon.
And then there was the way that her soft brown hair grew above the
slender neck, to say nothing of--but Mrs. Gaston was watching him
with most unfriendly eyes, so the feast was spoiled.
The following day was as unlike its predecessor as black is like
white. During the night the smooth grey pond had been transformed
into a turbulent, storm-threshed ocean; the once gentle wind was now
a howling gale that swept the decks with a merciless lash in its grip
and whipped into submission all who vaingloriously sought to defy its
chill dominion. Not rain, but spray from huge, swashing billows,
clouded the decks, biting and cutting like countless needles, each
drop with the sting of a hornet behind it. Now the end of the world
seemed far away, and the jumping off place was a rickety wall of
white and black, leaning against a cold, drear sky.
Only the hardiest of the passengers ventured on deck; the
exhilaration they professed was but another name for bravado.
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