Ten minutes later Drew came out into the cabin, having put away his belongings.
"I am sure the room couldn't be better, Mrs. March," he said. "It seems to me delightfully cozy and neat."
Mrs. March shook her head and smiled as she said:
"I'd 'a' been better satisfied if you hadn't mentioned its being so nice. I've noticed this about men folks, that when things suit them, they don't notice them. When Cap'n March talks and acts like a man right out of the Bible, I'm sure he's been up to mischief, or else has something unpleasant on his mind, one."
Drew laughed as he replied:
"Then I'm going to cultivate wise silences, Mrs. March. I'll give you the impression of a man walking in a dream. I have come on this voyage to learn things; you are not letting me lose any time."
"Oh, if you came to learn things, you'll be wasting time by talking with the rest of us: you must go to my daughter here. She's been called to that, you know—to teach all men and nations." Her voice held a curious note: pride, resentment, anxiety, all seemed to marshal themselves in the words.
"Mother!"
Drew turned quickly at the one word, to see the daughter standing in the doorway of her room. He noticed that while the girl's brow was drawn in a frown, her lips had the undecided irregularity of curve that hinted at a smile suppressed. This study of particulars did not make him any the less alert to a general impression of striking beauty. He smiled and bowed somewhat elaborately, to which the girl returned a curt little nod, though her answering smile was friendly.
He had the tact to seem not to recognize the tension and to turn to other subjects, and he now said, with a heartiness that seemed to have long been waiting for expression, that they really were off at last. His glance at the hanging lamp over the table, gently swaying in its gimbals, had the effect of bringing the corroborative testimony of its motion to their notice, while he went on to add that it seemed too good to be true. He said that ever since the brig had anchored off the harbor he had been haunted by the fear that something would happen at the last moment to keep him at home. Not till now had he felt safe.