I should think that she must be full up to the hatches, for she is very low in the water for a trader." The Osprey was lying in the outside tier of yachts off Cowes.

The party that had been on board her for the regatta had broken up a week before, and only Lady Greendale and Bertha remained on board.
The former had not been well for some days, and had had her maid down from town as soon as the cabins were empty.

It had been proposed, indeed, that she and Bertha should return to town, but, being unwilling to cut short the girl's pleasure, she said that she should do better on board than in London; and, moreover, she did not feel equal to travelling.

She was attended by a doctor in Cowes, and the Osprey only took short sails each day, generally down to the Needles and back, or out to the Nab.
"Yes, she is a nice-looking boat," Bertha agreed, "and if her sails were white and her ropes neat and trim, she would look like a yacht, except for those big yards." "Her skipper must be a lubber to have the ropes hanging about like that.

Of course, he may have had bad weather in crossing the bay, but if he had any pride in the craft, he might at least have got her into a good deal better trim while coming in from the Needles.
Still, all that could be remedied in an hour's work, and certainly she is as pretty a trader as ever I saw.