The contrast, as I entered the cabin, was startling.

All contrasts aboard the _Elsinore_ promised to be startling.

Instead of the cold, hard deck my feet sank into soft carpet.

In place of the mean and narrow room, built of naked iron, where I had left the lunatic, I was in a spacious and beautiful apartment.

With the bawling of the men's voices still in my ears, and with the pictures of their drink-puffed and filthy faces still vivid under my eyelids, I found myself greeted by a delicate- faced, prettily-gowned woman who sat beside a lacquered oriental table on which rested an exquisite tea-service of Canton china.