AT dinner that evening the three friends had the opportunity of seeing most of their fellow-passengers and learning the names of some of them. The list was not so long as usual, owing to the time of year, but it included one or two doctors, a major and his wife, a lieutenant, a Danish nurse, an Austrian officer, and a good number of more ordinary folk.
Coming through London that morning, Elizabeth had specially noticed a foreign gentleman and lady in Eastern attire, with a large parcel of very strange shape, and as she stepped on board the Razila she caught sight of the same two sitting on deck with their strange-looking parcel beside them. Their voluminous robes of brown and white were very picturesque; the man was handsome, with clear cut features, but the woman's face was almost hidden.
Elizabeth heard afterward that they were Jews, who had been on a visit to England, and were now returning to their home in Morocco. They did not sit down with the rest of the passengers at dinner, but took their meals apart, and in spite of her interest she never found an opportunity of speaking to them, or of satisfying her curiosity as to the contents of that parcel.
There had been many new experiences during the day, and when bedtime came there was another, for a berth at sea is very different from a nice large comfortable bed at home, and it took nearly all the time till morning to learn to sleep in it.
But when Elizabeth awoke next morning and looked through her porthole, instead of fog and darkness she saw the white cliffs of the Kentish coast shining in the fair light of dawn, with calm, pale sea at their base. It was one of those lovely views which are not easily forgotten, and her memory stored it away in its picture book, to be looked at again and again.
Later in the day Beachy Head was sighted, and still later they watched the flashing light which warns ships to keep off the dreaded Needles of the Isle of Wight.
And then, when night was drawing on, Nora, Gertrude and Elizabeth found a quiet corner on deck where they could sit together undisturbed. They looked out over the darkening waters and thought of One whose pathway through this world was like a lovely track of light shining upon the waves, as they sang:
Across the dark gray sea
I saw a pathway bright,
As if to show how well to be
In God's unclouded light.
Save in that path of gold,
Gloom reigned on every hand,
I loved its glory to behold,
In isolation grand.
One path through all this scene,
Unknown to earthly ken,
Tells where the Father's Son has been.
God's Christ, refused of men.
And now in heaven we see
The glory of the Lord;
Unveiled His face: unveiled are we,
In true and sweet accord.”