you tell Captain Bunnett that his wife, Mrs. Bunnett, is here?” said that lady, a thin little woman with bright black eyes.
“Yes, mum,” said the seaman, and was hurrying off when Mrs. Fillson called him back.
“Will you tell Mr. Fillson that his wife, Mrs. Fillson, is up here?” she said politely.
“All right, mum,” said the other, and went below to communicate the pleasing tidings. Both husbands came up on deck hastily, and a glance served to show them how their wives stood.
“How do you do, Cap’n Bunnett,” said Mrs. Fill-son, with a fascinating smile.
“Good-morning, marm,” said the skipper, trying to avoid his wife’s eye; “that’s my wife, Mrs. Bunnett.”
“Good-morning, ma’am,” said Mrs. Fillson, adjusting the new bonnet with the tips of her fingers.
“Good-morning to you,” said Mrs. Bunnett in a cold voice, and patronising. “You have come to bring your husband some of his things, I suppose?”
“She’s coming with us,” said the skipper, in a hurry to have it over. “Wait half a moment, and I’ll help you down.”
He got up on to the side and helped them both to the deck, and, with a great attempt at cheery conversation, led the way below, where, in the midst of an impressive silence, he explained that the ladies would have to share the state-room between them.
“That’s the only way out of it,” said the mate, after waiting in vain for them to say something.
“It’s a fairish size when you come to look at it,” said the skipper, putting his head on one side to see whether the bunk looked larger that way.
“Pack three in there at a pinch,” said the mate hardily.
Still the ladies said nothing, but there was a storm-signal hoisted in Mrs. Bunnett’s cheek, which boded no good to her husband. There was room only for one trunk in the state-room, and by prompt generalship Mrs. Fillson got hers in first. Having seen it safe she went up on deck, for a look round.
“George,” said Mrs. Bunnett fiercely, as soon as they were alone.
“Yes, my dear,” said her husband.
“Pack that woman off home,” said Mrs. Bunnett sharply.
“I couldn’t do that,” said the skipper firmly. “It’s your own fault; you should have said you was coming.”
“Oh, I know you didn’t want me to come,” said Mrs. Bunnett, the roses on her bonnet trembling. “The mate can think of a little pleasure for his wife, but I can stay at home and do your mending and keep the house clean. Oh, I know; don’t tell me.”
“Well, it’s too late to alter it,” said her husband. “I must get up above now; you’d better come too.”
Mrs. Bunnett followed him on deck, and, getting as far from the mate’s wife as possible, watched with a superior air of part ownership the movements of the seamen as they got under way. A favourable westerly breeze was blowing, and the canvas once set she stood by her husband as he pointed out the various objects of interest on the banks of the river.
They were still in the thick of the traffic at dinner-time, so that the skipper was able, to his secret relief, to send the mate below to do the honours of the table. He came up from it pale and scared, and, catching the skipper’s eye, hunched his shoulders significantly.
“No words?” inquired the latter anxiously, in a half-whisper.
“Not exactly words,” replied the mate. “What you might call snacks.”
“I know,” said the other with a groan.
“If you don’t now,” said the mate, “you will at tea-time. I’m not going to sit down there with them alone again. You needn’t think it If you was to ask me what I’ve been eating I couldn’t tell you.”
He moved off a bit as his table companions came up on deck, and the master of the Foam deciding to take the bull by the horns, called both of them to him, and pointed out the beauties of the various passing craft. In the midst of his discourse his wife moved off, leaving the unhappy man conversing alone with Mrs. Fillson, her face containing an expression such as is seen in the prints of the very best of martyrs as she watched them.
At tea-time the men sat in misery; Mrs. Bunnett passed Mrs. Fillson her tea without looking at her, an example which Mrs. Fillson followed in handing her the cut bread and butter. When she took the plate back it was empty, and Mrs. Bunnett, convulsed with rage, was picking the slices out of her lap.
“Oh, I am sorry,” said Mrs. Fillson.
“You’re not, ma’am,” said Mrs. Bunnett fiercely. “You did it a purpose.”
“There, there!” said both men feebly.
“Of course my husband’ll sit quite calm and see me insulted,” said Mrs. Bunnett, rising angrily from her seat.
“And my husband’ll sit still drinking tea while I’m given the lie,” said Mrs. Fillson, bending an indignant look upon the mate.
“If you think I’m going to share the state-room with that woman, George, you’re mistaken,” said Mrs. Bunnett in a terrible voice. “I’d sooner sleep on a doorstep.”
“And I’d sooner sleep on the scraper,” said Mrs. Fillson, regarding her foe’s scanty proportions.
“Very well, me an’ the mate’ll sleep there,” said the skipper wearily. “You can have the mate’s bunk and Mrs. Fillson can have the locker. You don’t mind, George?”
“Oh, George don’t mind,” said Mrs. Bunnett mimickingly; “anything’ll do for George. If you’d got the spirit of a man, you wouldn’t let me be insulted like this.”
“And if you’d got the spirit of a man,” said Mrs. Fillson, turning on her husband, “you wouldn’t let them talk to me like this. You never stick up for me.”
She flounced up on deck where Mrs. Bunnett, after a vain attempt to finish her tea, shortly followed her. The two men continued their meal for some time in silence.
“We’ll have to ‘ave a quarrel just to oblige them, George,” said the skipper at length, as he put down his cup. “Nothing else’ll satisfy ‘em.”
“It couldn’t be done,” said the mate, reaching over and clapping him on the back.
“Just pretend, I mean,” said the other.
“It couldn’t be done proper,” said the mate; “they’d see through it. We’ve sailed together five years now, an’ never ‘ad what I could call a really nasty word.”
“Well, if you can think o’ anything,” said the skipper, “say so. This sort o’ thing is worrying.”
“See how we get on at breakfast,” said the mate, as he lit his pipe. “If that’s as bad as this, we’ll have a bit of a row to please ‘em.”
Breakfast next morning was, if anything, worse, each lady directly inciting her lord to acts of open hostility. In this they were unsuccessful, but in the course of the morning the husbands arranged matters to their own satisfaction, and at the next meal the storm broke with violence.
“I don’t wish to complain or hurt anybody’s feelings,” said the skipper, after a side-wink at the mate, “but if you could eat your wittles with a little less noise, George, I’d take it as a favour.”
“Would you?” said the mate, as his wife stiffened suddenly in her seat. “Oh!”
Both belligerents, eyeing each other ferociously, tried hard to think of further insults.
“Like a pig,” continued the skipper grumblingly.
The mate hesitated so long for a crushing rejoinder that his wife lost all patience and rose to her feet crimson with wrath.
“How dare you talk to my husband