Much of it came to us through those detailed to serve food, while guards and sailors were not always averse to being talked with.

We always knew the ship's course, and I managed to keep in my mind a very dear idea of how the voyage progressed.

Not a great deal of this gossip, however, related to the passengers aft, who kept rather exclusively to themselves, nor did I feel inclined to question those who might have the information.
I had no wish to reveal my interest to others, and so continued entirely ignorant of the identity of the young woman.

She remained in my memory, in my thoughts nameless, a dream rather than a reality.

I did learn quite by accident that the gay gallant was a wealthy Spaniard, supposedly of high birth, by name Sanchez, and at one time in the naval service, and likewise ascertained that the rotund planter, so evidently in the party, was a certain Roger Fairfax, of Saint Mary's in Maryland, homeward bound after a successful sale of his tobacco crop in London.