Page:Floating City (1904).djvu/32

 embarkation. At half-past twelve the luggage was all on board, and I saw thousands of packages of every description, from chests large enough to contain a suite of furniture, to elegant little travelling-cases and fanciful American and English trunks, heaped together pell-mell. All these were soon cleared from the deck, and stowed away in the store-rooms; workmen and porters returned to the tender, which steered off, after having blackened the side of the "Great Eastern" with her smoke.

I was going back towards the bows, when suddenly I found myself face to face with the young man I had seen on Prince's Landing-Stage. He stopped on seeing me, and held out his hand, which I warmly shook.

"You, Fabian!" I cried. "You here?"

"Even so, my dear friend."

"I was not mistaken, then; it was really you I saw on the quay a day or two since."

"It is most likely," replied Fabian, "but I did not see you."

"And you are going to America?"

"Certainly! Do you think I could spend a month's leave better than in travelling?"

"How fortunate that you thought of making your tour in the 'Great Eastern'!"

"It was not chance at all, my dear fellow. I read in the newspaper that you were one of the passengers; and as