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Single-minded and totally without management,--devoted to her duties,---
religious without cant,--a warm friend of liberal institutions, without
the slightest approach to the impracticable, in heart and soul a woman,
you will find it hard to persuade her, that with all her practice in the
world, and all her extensive attainments, she is more than a humble copy
of heir own great _beau idéal_."
Paul smiled, and his eyes met those of John Effingham--the expression of
both satisfied the parties that they thought alike in more things than in
their common admiration of the subject of their discourse.
"I feel I have not been as explicit as I ought to be with you, Mr.
Effingham," the young, man resumed, after a pause; "but on a more fitting
occasion, I shall presume on your kindness to be less reserved. My lot has
thrown me on the world, almost without friends, quite without relatives,
so far as intercourse with them is concerned; and I have known little of
the language or the acts of the affections."
John Effingham pressed his hand, and from that time he cautiously
abstained from any allusion to his personal concerns; for a suspicion
crossed his mind that the subject was painful to the young man. He knew
that thousands of well-educated and frequently of affluent people, of both
sexes, were to be found in Europe, to whom, from the circumstance of
having been born out of wedlock, through divorces, or other family
misfortunes, their private histories were painful, and he at once inferred
that some such event, quite probably the first, lay at the bottom of Paul
Blunt's peculiar situation. Notwithstanding his warm attachment to Eve, he
had too much confidence in her own as well as in her father's judgment, to
suppose an acquaintance of any intimacy would be lightly permitted; and
as to the mere prejudices connected with such subjects, he was quite free
from them. Perhaps his masculine independence of character caused him, on
all such points, to lean to the side of the _ultra_ in liberality.
In this short dialogue, with the exception of the slight though
unequivocal allusion of John Effingham, both bad avoided any farther
allusions to Mr. Sharp, or to his supposed attachment to Eve. Both were
confident of its existence, and this perhaps was one reason why neither
felt any necessity to advert to it: for it was a delicate subject, and
one, under the circumstances, that they would mutually wish to forget in
their cooler moments. The conversation then took a more general character,
and for several hours that day, while the rest of the passengers were kept
below by the state of the weather, these two were together, laying, what
perhaps it was now too late to term, the foundation of a generous and
sincere friendship. Hitherto Paul had regarded John Effingham with
distrust and awe, but he found him a man so different from what report and
his own fancy had pictured, that the reaction in his feelings served to
heighten them, and to aid in increasing his respect. On the other hand,
the young man exhibited so much modest good sense, a fund of information
so much beyond his years, such integrity and justice of sentiment, that
when they separated for the night, the old bachelor was full of regret
that nature had not made him the parent of such a son.
All this time the business of the ship had gone on. The wind increased
steadily, until, as the sun went down, Captain Truck announced it, in the
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
cabin, to be a "regular-built gale of wind." Sail after sail had been
reduced or furled until the Montauk was lying-to under her foresail, a
close-reefed main-top-sail, a fore-top-mast stay-sail, and a mizzen
stay-sail. Doubts were even entertained whether the second of these sails
would not have to be handed soon, and the foresail itself reefed.
The ship's head was to the south-south-west, her drift considerable, and
her way of course barely sufficient to cause her to feel her helm. The
Foam had gained on her several miles during the time sail could be
carried; but she, also, had been obliged to heave-to, at the same
increase of the sea and wind as that which had forced Mr. Truck to lash
his wheel down. This state of things made a considerable change in the
relative positions of the two vessels again; the next morning showing the
sloop-of-war hull down, and well on the weather-beam of the packet. Her
sharper mould and more weatherly qualities had done her this service, as
became a ship intended for war and the chase.
At all this, however, Captain Truck laughed. He could not be boarded in
such weather, and it was matter of indifference where his pursuer might
be, so long as he had time to escape, when the gale ceased. On the whole,
he was rather glad than otherwise of the present state of things, for it
offered a chance to slip away to leeward as soon as the weather would
permit, if, indeed, his tormentor did not altogether disappear in the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]