“C. Q.”; or, In the Wireless House
fine”—“Perfectly lovely!”— “No I was n’t sick, but lots of ’em were!”
These and a hundred thousand other platitudes. banalities and witticisms were bawled, shouted and shrieked across the intervening forty feet of water, accompanied by extraordinary contortions of body, and by the most horrible mouthings, grimaces and gesticulations while the Pavonia was made fast and her gangplanks run ashore.
Then they all began to crowd down the gangways, and that pitiable and enlightening spectacle—the great American public struggling with its individual conscience—began.
All this time Micky sat aloft in his little cage smoking his pipe and taking in the scene with huge enjoyment. He was in no hurry to go ashore. In fact, unless he were fooling with horses, he 's rather be on a boat, even with nothing to do than hanging around town any day in the week. He saw with mingled feelings Lily and her husband, followed by Fantine, edge their way down the gang-plank and disappear in the covered shed of the pier. She was really a good sort, but—! There was a something about her—he could n’t explain it279
