For the first time since she had come to sea Lizbeth felt that things would be easier could she appear as herself. This terrible state of affairs of pretending to be Mister Gillingham in front of the officers and the men was beginning to be distasteful and irksome, and she wished that tonight of all nights she could be Lizbeth both to Rodney who hated her and to Don Miguel who loved her.
It was vanity that made her choose Francis’ best doublet of blue satin, the sleeves slashed and puffed; the ruff which went with it was edged with silver, and when she looked at herself in the burnished mirror, Lizbeth was not ashamed of her appearance.
All the same, she saw herself for a moment in her mind’s eye in the green Chinese silk that Don Miguel had described to her and she imagined the emeralds
