“Can the machinery be put in working order? Are there no leaks? Is she _sound_, Captain Cairns? I think nothing of appearances--no one cares now;--but is she really watertight and seaworthy?”
“Yes, miss,” said Captain Cairns. “The three ships are all right. You may take my word for it.”
“But this _is_ the best of the three, isn’t she?”
“Yes, I think she is. She’s the best-looking, anyhow.”
Nothing tired Miss Verinder, and she took nothing for granted. Although they were only concerned with the _Marian II._, she insisted on being rowed up the river a little further, to see the other two steamers that belonged to the same owner. One of these, the _Osprey_, was out in the stream, black and forbidding, with the water racing past the faded paint beneath her load-line. The third one, the _Anemone_, was literally on the mud.
“Good Lord, no,” said Cairns. “She’s right enough. Get her reconditioned, and no one would recognize her.”
Mr. Gann and Mr. Rice were both suffering from the cold, and both weary of the excursion. At their request the boat was turned and the party made its way back to Liverpool.
Miss Verinder was more wonderful still at the final meeting with the timorous owner and his agent. They all sat round a carved oak table in a luxurious private sitting-room at the hotel; but, as the manager had not been able to allow them a fire, Miss Verinder retained her fur wraps and the gentlemen their overcoats. She took no part in a lengthy struggle with regard to the price they were to pay. Cairns and the agent grew heated in a contest of praise and disparagement. Mr. Gann became sadder and more sad. Mr. Rice at last told Mr. Jones, the owner, that to ask twelve thousand pounds for a rotten old tub like the _Marian II._ was high-seas piracy; and Mr. Jones said that unless this word was immediately withdrawn he would break off the negotiation. To show that he was in earnest, he pushed back his chair and put on his hat.
“Ladies present, kindly remember,” said Cairns.
“Oh, please don’t mind me,” said Miss Verinder, sweetly. Then she went and rang an electric bell while the others continued to wrangle.
A waiter brought, not inopportunely, a tray with sandwiches, biscuits, whisky, soda water; and, at Miss Verinder’s request, the gentlemen consented to take light refreshment.