me,' says he, 'short of a
hurricane. Don't spare your cloths, let it blow as it may. You
understand that?'

"'Quite easily,' says I.

"Now, this order I took to be as singular as our going to the
Mediterranean, for Mr. Robinson was never a man to carry on; there was
no racing in him; quiet sailing was his pleasure, and what his hurry
was all of a sudden I couldn't imagine, though I guessed that the
party in the cabin might have something to do with it. She came on
deck after we had been under way about three quarters of an hour, this
time without a veil, with what they call a turban hat on her head.
There was plenty of moonlight, and I tell you that the very shadow she
cast, and that lay like a carving of jet on ivory, looked beautiful on
the white deck, so fine her figure was. Lord, how her big eyes
flashed, too, when she drew my way and turned 'em to the moon! Being a
sober, 'spectable man myself, with correct views on the bringing up of
daughters, it seemed to be a queer start that if so be this young lady
was keeping company with Mr. Robinson--being courted by him, you
know--that her mother or some female connection wasn't along with her.
P'raps they were married, I thought; might have been spliced that very
morning. She had no gloves on, and whenever she walked with Mr.
Robinson near to me, I'd take a long squint at her left hand; but
there was no distinguishing a wedding-ring by moonshine, and even had
it been broad daylight it would have been all the same, for the jewels
lay so thick on her fingers you'd have fancied them sparkling with
dew.

"Well, all that night it blew a soft, quiet wind, but for hours next
day 'twas all dead calm, a light swell, the sunlight coming off the
water hot as steam, and the yacht slewing round and round as if, like
the rest of us, she was trying to find out where the wind meant to
come from next. I never saw any man fret more over a calm than Mr.
Robinson did over that. The lady didn't appear discomposed; she sat
under the awning reading, and once when Mr. Robinson turned to look at
her she ran her shining black eyes with a smiling roll around the sea,
that was just the same as if she had said, 'Isn't it big enough?' for
hang me if even I couldn't read the language in them sparklers of hers
when she chose to lift the eyelashes off their meaning, unaccustomed
as Jacob Williams ever was to female ways and the customs they pursue!
But Mr. Robinson couldn't keep quiet. He kept on a