She was very slight and dainty, and looked fragile; but she was a very good equestrienne, and when on a horse displayed extraordinary nerve.
The other girl--her name was Isabel Devigne, a stage name, no doubt--was tall, dark-eyed, with the regular features and blue-black hair of a Spaniard.

She also was a rider; she had been in the business--pardon! profession--since she could walk, and her experiences of life were many and peculiar.

Perhaps because of their contrasting characteristics, she and Alice Merton had been drawn towards each other, and were fast friends.

They occupied opposite bunks, walked and talked together, and were both in love with Sydney Green, who ministered to both, in his capacity of amateur ship doctor, with strict though unconscious impartiality.
Derrick was not of the susceptible genus, and, if he had been, he was too much driven by the incessant work to spare time for even the mildest flirtation.

Besides, whenever he found time for thought, his mind always went back to a certain room in Brown's Buildings, far away in London, to a girl's face looking down at him from over the balustrade.