Detailed, Clever
When it comes to Helena, she's got her eyes on the details—she notices everything on the ship, and she tells us every little tidbit. Right down to the number of mice at dinner. Or the awesomeness of Nigel's whiskers. Or the Duchess's stinky breath. (We could've done without that last one.)
Helena's detailed style gives us a pretty good picture of what life on the ship is like. Just take a look at her description of how she cleaned up Lord Sandown's bed:
Nanny Pratt looked again at the bed. There wasn't a crumb on it. Not a Scottish shortbread or jam tart or fruitcake slice. The cupcake was missing, along with the chocolate-covered cherry. I had stuffed them all down the space between the bed and the wall in two of the busiest minutes of my life. I was at that moment enjoying a much-needed rest, under the top sheet. (11.104)
Check out that list of sweets Helena sweeps up—she doesn't just tell us that she tidied up the bed. Instead she goes through each and every item that she moved and where she put it. Her style is pretty meticulous, and that's good news for us because we get a super clear picture of her story. The only downside is that now we're feeling pretty hungry…
Paying attention to all these details also gives Helena a rather clever style. She really likes to play with her words, so whenever she can, she shows off her smarty-pants ways with some wordplay. Check out the way Helena describes being stuck in the trunk drawer when she and her siblings are travelling onto the ship:
Beatrice and Louise and I were nose to nose to nose, under the lacy edges of Camilla's handkerchiefs. It was a small drawer. There wasn't room to swing a… cat. (6.4)
Have you ever heard the phrase there's not enough room to swing a cat? It basically means that there's not much space, that things are a wee bit scrunched. And we have to admit, it would be tough (and mean) to swing a cat in a crowded room… or drawer, as the case may be.
So we already know that Helena doesn't like cats, but she uses her clever storytelling style to make a joke about not being able to swing a cat inside the trunk. She's still being super detailed, letting us know precisely what the trunk is like, but she's being witty to boot. Helena is one cool cat… we mean mouse… like that.