The ship swung slowly away from the side of the wharf. Several people on board then said, "Well, we're off at last!" to several other people who had only been thinking of saying it.
Owen Quentillian remembered another, longer, sea voyage taken by himself at an early age. Far more clearly he remembered his arrival at St. Gwenllian.
It was that which he wanted to recall, aware as he was of the necessity for resuming a connection that had almost insensibly lapsed for several years.
He deliberately let his mind travel backwards, visualizing himself, a disconsolate, shivering morsel, being taken away from Papa and Mamma at the very station itself, and put into an open pony-cart beside Miss Lucilla Morchard.
