I could do it myself now.
There certainly were a lot of things to think over. I do not
recall now exactly the moment when I ceased thinking them over.
A blank that was measurable by hours ensued. I woke from a dream
about a scrambled egg, in which I was the egg, to find that morning
had arrived and the ship was behaving naughtily.
Here was a ship almost as long as Main Street is back home, and
six stories high, with an English basement; with restaurants and
elevators and retail stores in her; and she was as broad as a
courthouse; and while lying at the dock she had appeared to be
about the most solid and dependable thing in creation - and yet in
just a few hours' time she had altered her whole nature, and was
rolling and sliding and charging and snorting like a warhorse. It
was astonishing in the extreme, and you would not have expected it
of her.
Even as I focused my mind on this phenomenon the doorway was
stealthily entered by a small man in a uniform that made him look
something like an Eton schoolboy and something like a waiter in a
dairy lunch. I was about to have the first illuminating experience
with an English manservant. This was my bedroom steward, by name
Lubly - William Lubly. My hat is off to William Lubly - to him and
to all his kind. He was always on duty; he never seemed to sleep;
he was always in a good humor, and he always thought of the very
thing you wanted just a moment or two before you thought of it
yourself, and came a-running and fetched it to you. Now he was
softly stealing in to close my port. As he screwed the round,
brass-faced window fast he glanced my way and caught my apprehensive
eye.
"Good morning, sir," he said, and said it in such a way as to
convey a subtle compliment.
"Is it getting rough outside?" I said - I knew about the inside.
"Thank you," he said; "the sea 'as got up a bit, sir - thank you,
sir."
I was gratified - nay more, I was flattered. And it was so delicately
done too. I really did not have the heart to tell him that I was
not solely responsible - that I had, so to speak, collaborators;
but Lubly stood ready always to accord me a proper amount of
recognition for everything that happened on that ship. Only the
next day, I think it was, I asked him where we were. This occurred
on deck. He had just answered a lady who wanted to know whether
we should have good weather on the day we landed at Fishguard and
whether we should get in on time. Without a moment's hesitation
he told her; and then he turned to me with the air of giving credit
where credit is due, and said:
