All this, however, we did not learn until we landed in England, although I have no doubt that John Turner knew it when he gave us so sharp a warning.
The weather was favourable to us, and the ladies came on deck the next morning in a calm sea as we sped past the North Foreland between the Goodwin Lightships and the land.

It was a lovely morning, and the sea all stripes of deep blue and green, and even yellow where the great sand banks of the Thames estuary lay beneath the rippled surface.
Lucille thought but little of England, as she judged it from the tame bluffs of Thanet.
"Are these the famous white cliffs of England ?" she said to the captain, for she rarely addressed herself unnecessarily to me.

"Why they are but one quarter of the height of those of St.Valery that I saw from the cabin window last night." The captain, a simple man, sought to prove that England had counterbalancing advantages.

He knew not that in certain humours a woman will find fault with anything.

I thought that Mademoiselle took exception to the poor cliffs because they were those of my native land.
Madame proved more amenable to reason, however, and the captain, whose knowledge of French was not great, made an easier convert of her than of Lucille, who spoke English prettily enough, while her mother knew only the one tongue.
"There is bad weather coming," said the captain to me later in the day.