sorrier for ourselves than for her, Colonel Deane was able to amuse and distract her as no one else could do. So, too, with children, he could keep them in better order than even their own nurses, and yet they loved him dearly. In fact “The Man of Comfort” was a title that fitted him to perfection.
The weather for the first four weeks was glorious; we spent delightful summer days at Teneriffe and Cape Town, one at each port, and lived a dolce far niente life on the boat deck, basking in the sun. Then as we travelled farther South it grew gradually colder, and often we longed for the warm clothes we had so recklessly thrown aside! Once we passed an iceberg: it looked like a mammoth opal, the sun had given it so many colours. But with lots of rugs
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Parliament Buildings, Cape Town.
and overcoats we were still able to stay up on deck, as the weather fortunately continued to be bright and sunny in spite of a temperature of 30 degrees; and then we had a long day at Hobart, where it was almost too hot, just to revive us.
After Hobart we of course expected nothing but summer, but we were sadly disillusioned. For the next few days before we arrived in the Hauraki Gulf were not only bitterly cold but stormy, with a rougher sea than we had experienced since we started, and we were simply obliged to stay in the steam-heated music-room or dining saloon, for the decks were impossibly inclement. Mrs Greendays was angry with everyone, from the doctor who had recommended the voyage to the writers of the guide-books who had so basely refrained from hinting at anything but summer weather, and of course her husband and I came in for our share, for having allowed her to discard her winter garments
