C. B. went straight to his cabin, but his wife was not there. From thence he ascended to the deck, where he saw, as if it had been arranged for him, a tableau such as the mate had been speaking about. There was his father-in-law asleep with an open book in his hand in one deck chair, his wife in another next to the old gentleman, and seated on a cushion at her feet the skipper, whose face, distinctly visible to C. B.’s eagle vision from where he was, bore an expression entirely evil. His wife’s face he could not see, but he went quickly towards her, saying—
“Mary, dear, will you come down for a moment, I want to speak to you.”
She rose immediately, turning towards him as she did so, and he saw that her dear face was pale and drawn and that her eyes were full of tears. Choking down the awful wrath he felt rising within him at the sight, he assisted her into their cabin, closed the door, and said—
“Mary, dear, forgive me, I never dreamed of neglecting you, but I see that I have. And I fear that I have subjected you to persecution of a very bad kind. Tell me, dear, what has the captain done?”
She looked doubtfully at him for a moment as if wondering what the outcome would be, but she was too much akin to him in soul to palter with the truth through fear, so she said—
“Dear love, he has been very offensive for some time now. His actual words have had little meaning in them for me, though I know they all had a double intention, but his eyes and his looks generally have filled me with horror. I have felt again and again that I must tell you, but, dear one, I dreaded a scene, I find I don’t know you well enough even yet, and then there was nothing actually to complain about except his looks. But he certainly has made me very unhappy, and there could be no mistake as to his meaning.”
Again C. B. said with grave penitence—
“Forgive me, dear, I had not imagined that men could be so vile. I suppose to them I must look like a semi-idiot. However, you shall have no more of this. I will go to him now.”
The captain was just then coming down into his stateroom whistling dreamily, and C. B., following him to the door, said—