Page:Floating City (1904).djvu/105

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
A FLOATING CITY.
75

CHAPTER XIV.

At lunch Dean Pitferge told me that the reverend gentleman had admirably enlarged on his text. Battering rams, armed forts, and submarine torpedoes had figured in his discourse; as for himself, he was made great by the greatness of America. If it pleases America to be thus extolled, I have nothing to say.

Entering the grand saloon, I read the following note:—

Lat. 50° 8′ N.
Long. 30° 44′ W.
Course, 255 miles.

Always the same result. We had only made eleven hundred miles, including the three hundred and ten between Fastenet and Liverpool, about a third part of our voyage. During the remainder of the day officers, sailors, and passengers continued to rest in accordance with established custom. Not a piano sounded in the silent saloons; the chess-men did not leave their box, or the cards their case; the billiard-room was deserted. I had an oppor-