"Has she been ill?"
"No, sir. I have never known her ill, yet. She has been worrying
herself a great deal. She has waited so long, because she did not like
to go out until she could take me with her. She has no friends in
England with whom she could leave me. She looks a good deal better,
now, than she did a month ago. I think, directly she settled to come
out, and had something to do, she became better."
"That is quite natural," the doctor said. "There is nothing so trying
as inactivity. I have no doubt that the sea air will quite set her up
again. It performs almost miracles on the homeward-bound passengers.
They come on board looking pale, and listless, and washed out; at the
end of a month at sea, they are different creatures altogether."
The purser had taken pains to seat Mrs. Holland, at table, next to a
person who would be a pleasant companion for her; and the lady she was
now talking to was the wife of a chaplain in the army. She had, a year
before, returned from India in the Madras, and he knew her to be a
kind and pleasant woman.
Dick did not care for his cabin mates. They were young fellows of
about eighteen years of age. One was a nephew of a Director of the
Company, the other the son of a high Indian official.
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