“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
their arrival upon a dock as yet over a mile distant. The second steward appeared walking ostentatiously in the vicinity of the more wealthy passengers, and state-room stewards and stewardesses hurried anxiously about the decks looking for patrons who had forgotten them. Ladies who had arrayed themselves like last year’s scarecrows during the voyage appeared in crinkly Parisian garments with marvelous hats and heavily embroidered veils, and an elderly woman whose mottled features had been all sicklied o’er with a more than pale cast of thought during the past two weeks now burst forth in a white serge costume and an entirely new countenance bearing the vivid imitation of rosy youth. On her feet she wore shapely pointed patent-leather shoes absolutely new, which creaked loudly as she walked; and in her large white-gloved hand she carried a leather-covered parrot cage with a flap fastened by a brass buckle. When a momentary lull occurred the occupant could be heard crooning and chuckling to himself.
Everybody was talking to everybody else. Now that the trip was over and the shore close at hand people seemed to be rather sorry275
