Mrs. Vanderburgh turned away from the rail, where she had paused in her
constitutional when addressed by the old gentleman, and came up to the
girls.
"Do sit down, Mamma, in your steamer chair," begged Fanny; "I'll tuck
you up in your rug." And she jumped lightly out of her own chair.
"There, that's nice," as Mrs. Vanderburgh sank gracefully down, and
Fanny patted and pulled the rug into shape. "Now tell us, wasn't he the
most horrible old bore?"
As she cuddled back into her own nest, Mrs. Vanderburgh laughed in a
very high-bred manner. "He was very amusing," she said.
"Amusing! I should say so!" cried Fanny. "I suppose he would have told
you all his family history if he had stayed. O dear me, he is such a
common, odious old person."
Polly twisted uneasily under her rug.
Mrs. Vanderburgh glanced into the steamer chair on the other side. It
had several books on top of the rug. "I don't believe he can take that
seat," she said; "still, Fanny, I think it would be well for you to
change into it, for that old man may take it into his head, when he
makes the turn of the deck, to drop into it and give us the whole of
his family history."
"Horrors!" ejaculated Fanny, hopping out of her chair again. "I'll make
sure that he doesn't. And yet I did so want to sit next to Polly
Pepper," she mourned, ensconcing herself under the neighbouring rug,
and putting the books on the floor by her side.
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