No sooner had she scrambled up to the second level, to the big platform joining the lower part of the mainmast, than the parson’s wife let out a faint shriek, pointing. Alarm telegraphed from officers to sailors, and a sailor’s huge, hairy arm wound round Aurélie’s skinny waist and plucked her off the masthead. She was indignant and tried exclaiming that she knew very well how to climb aloft, but in her excitement she spoke French, and by the time the sailor holding her had climbed down and set her on the deck, she was surrounded by well-meaning adults who scolded her about danger. After that, she was confined in morose boredom to the wardroom, which caused time to blur for me until the morning a band of rain cleared off and a sailor called from the heights that Ushant had been sighted. Aurélie jumped up and rushed up on deck with the other passengers, as the ship’s crew began preparing for Portsmouth. Aurélie was jubilant and nervous by turns, jiggling and jumping around. Mrs.
