He hated to be of their dreary company, but spiritually he knew that he was of it; and he vainly turned to cheer himself with the younger passengers.
Some matrons who went about clad in furs amused him, for they must have been unpleasantly warm in their jackets and boas; nothing but the hope of being able to tell the customs inspector with a good conscience that the things had been worn, would have sustained one lady draped from head to foot in Astrakhan.
They were all getting themselves ready for the fray or the play of the coming winter; but there seemed nothing joyous in the preparation.

There were many young girls, as there always are everywhere, but there were not many young men, and such as there were kept to the smoking-room.
There was no sign of flirtation among them; he would have given much for a moment of the pivotal girl, to see whether she could have brightened those gloomy surfaces with her impartial lamp.

March wished that he could have brought some report from the outer world to cheer his wife, as he descended to their state-room.

They had taken what they could get at the eleventh hour, and they had got no such ideal room as they had in the Norumbia.

It was, as Mrs.March graphically said, a basement room.
It was on the north side of the ship, which is a cold exposure, and if there had been any sun it could not have got into their window, which was half the time under water.