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When he had got a hand of Lydia's and one of Staniford's in each of his, with his wrists crossed, he said, "Now, I ain't one to tack round, and stand off and on a great deal, but what I want to say is just this: the Aroostook sails next week, and if you two are a mind to go back in her, the ship's yours, as I said to Miss Blood, here, I mean Mis' Staniford; well, I hain't had much time to get used to it! when she first come aboard there at Boston.
"He characteristically assumed the responsibility, although the voyage by sailing-vessel rather than steamer was their common whim, and it had been Staniford's preference that decided them for Trieste rather than any nearer port. "No, I'm not sorry, if you call it come, already. I think a bit of Europe will be a very good thing for the present, or as long as I'm in this irresolute mood.
She seemed on very good terms with him, and he was talking and making her laugh as Staniford had never heard her laugh before so freely, so heartily. The atoms that had been tending in Staniford's being toward a certain form suddenly arrested and shaped themselves anew at the vibration imparted by this laughter.
The idea which these words suggested sent a thrill to Staniford's heart, but he continued silent, and the mate went on, with the queer smile, which could be inferred rather than seen, working under his mustache and the humorous twinkle of his eyes evanescently evident under his cap peak.
He was excited, and in great gayety of spirits. He and Dunham went out into the cabin, where they found Captain Jenness pacing to and fro. "Well, sir," he said, taking Staniford's hand, and crossing his right with his left, so as to include Dunham in his congratulations, "you ought to have been a sailor!"
But Staniford's pleasure in the metaphysics of reciprocal appreciation, his wonder at the quickness with which she divined characters he painfully analyzed, was not greater than his joy in the pretty hitch of the shoulder with which she tucked her handkerchief into the back pocket of her sack, or the picturesqueness with, which she sat facing him, and leant upon the rail, with her elbow wrapped in her shawl, and the fringe gathered in the hand which propped her cheek.
"Well!" cried Staniford, with bitter impatience. "Well what?" Dunham asked, in a stupid voice. "Were they there?" "I don't know. I can't tell." "Can't tell, man? Did you go to see?" "I think so. I'm not sure." A heavy sense of calamity descended upon Staniford's heart, but patience came with it. "What's the matter, Dunham?" he asked, getting out tremulously. "I don't know.
Dunham plundered his own and Staniford's common stock of dainties for her dessert; the first officer agreed and applauded right and left; Staniford alone sat taciturn and inoperative, watching her face furtively. Once her eyes wandered to the side of the table where he and Dunham sat; then she colored and dropped her glance.
Evidently, her compassion was a religious duty. Staniford's generosity came easy to him. "I feel bound to say that Hicks was not a bad fellow. I disliked him immensely, and I ought to do him justice, now he's gone. He deserved all your pity. He's a doomed man; his vice is irreparable; he can't resist it."
"What makes you avoid me, old man?" he demanded, looking into Staniford's face with his frank, kind eyes. "And I avoid you?" asked Staniford. "Yes; why?" "Because I feel rather shabby, I suppose. I knew I felt shabby, but I didn't know I was avoiding you." "Well, no matter. If you feel shabby, it's all right; but I hate to have you feel shabby."
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