Augusta sank back with a sigh of relief, and then burst out laughing at the thought of the gentleman with the fair moustachios.  On the seat opposite to her somebody had thoughtfully placed a number of the day’s papers.  She took up the first that came to hand and glanced at it idly with the idea of trying to pick up the thread of events.  Her eyes fell instantly upon the name of Mr. Gladstone printed all over the sheet in type of varying size, and she sighed.  Life on the ocean wave had been perilous and disagreeable enough, but at any rate she had been free from Mr. Gladstone and his doings.  Whatever evil might be said of him, he was not an old man of the sea.  Turning the paper over impatiently she came upon the reports of the Probate Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court.  The first report ran thus:—­

* * * * *

BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE PRESIDENT.

IN THE MATTER OF MEESON, DECEASED.

This was an application arising out of the loss of R.M.S.  Kangaroo, on the eighteenth of December last.  It will be remembered that out of about a thousand souls on board that vessel the occupants of one boat only—­twenty-five people in all—­were saved.  Among the drowned was Mr. Meeson, the head of the well-known Birmingham publishing company of Meeson, Addison, and Roscoe, and Co. (Limited), who was at the time on a visit to New Zealand and Australia in connection with the business of the company.

Mr. Fiddlestick, Q.C., who with Mr. Pearl appeared for the applicants (and who was somewhat imperfectly heard), stated that the facts connected with the sinking of the Kangaroo would probably still be so fresh in his Lordship’s mind that it would not be necessary for him to detail them, although he had them upon affidavit before him.  His Lordship would remember that but one boat-load of people had survived from this, perhaps the most terrible, shipwreck of the generation.  Among the drowned was Mr. Meeson; and this application was on behalf of the executors of his will for leave to presume his death.  The property which passed under the will was very large indeed; amounting in all, Mr. Fiddlestick understood, to about two millions sterling, which, perhaps, might incline his Lordship to proceed very carefully in allowing probate to issue.

The President:  Well—­the amount of the property has got nothing to do with the principles on which the Court acts with regard to the presumption of death, Mr. Fiddlestick.

Quite so, my Lord, and I think that in this case your Lordship will be satisfied that there is no reason why probate should not issue.  It is, humanly speaking, impossible that Mr. Meeson can have escaped the general destruction.

The President:  Have you any affidavit from anybody who saw Mr. Meeson in the water?

No, my Lord; I have an affidavit from a sailor named Okers, the only man who was picked up in the water after the Kangaroo foundered, which states that he believes that he saw Mr. Meeson spring from the ship into the water, but the affidavit does not carry the matter further.  He cannot swear that it was Mr. Meeson.