Clarke, Marcus Andrew Hislop, 1846-1881 / 2008-11-12 00:00:00

A thin, tall,
soldier-like man, with a cold blue eye, and prim features,
came out of the cuddy below, handing out a fair-haired, affected,
mincing lady, of middle age. Captain Vickers, of Mr. Frere's regiment,
ordered for service in Van Diemen's Land, was bringing his lady on deck
to get an appetite for dinner.
Mrs. Vickers was forty-two (she owned to thirty-three), and had been
a garrison-belle for eleven weary years before she married prim John Vickers.
The marriage was not a happy one. Vickers found his wife extravagant,
vain, and snappish, and she found him harsh, disenchanted, and commonplace.
A daughter, born two years after their marriage, was the only link
that bound the ill-assorted pair. Vickers idolized little Sylvia,
and when the recommendation of a long sea-voyage for his failing health
induced him to exchange into the --th, he insisted upon bringing
the child with him, despite Mrs. Vickers's reiterated objections
on the score of educational difficulties. "He could educate her himself,
if need be," he said; "and she should not stay at home.
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