: on the
other hand, perhaps, it is the most treacherous companion the Commander
knows."

"And why is the rest of the superior so much less grateful than that of
the common man?"

"Because he pillows his head on responsibility."

"You are young, Mr Wilder, for a trust like this you bear."

"It is a service which makes us all prematurely old."

"Then, why not quit it?" said Gertrude, a little hastily.

"Quit it!" he replied, gazing at her intently, for an instant, while he
suspended his reply. "It would be to me like quitting the air we breathe."

"Have you so long been devoted to your profession?" resumed Mrs Wyllys,
bending her thoughtful eye, from the ingenuous countenance of her pupil,
once more towards the features of him she addressed.

"I have reason to think I was born on the sea."

"Think! You surely know your birth-place."

"We are all of us dependant on the testimony of others," said Wilder,
smiling, "for the account of that important event. My earliest
recollections are blended with the sight of the ocean, and I can hardly
say that I am a creature of the land at all."

"You have, at least, been fortunate in those who have had the charge to
watch over your education and your younger days."

"I have!" he answered, with strong emphasis. Then, after shading his face
an instant with his hands, he arose, and added, with a melancholy smile:
"And now to my last duty for the twenty four hours. Have you a disposition
to look at the night? So skilful and so stout a sailor should not seek her
birth, without passing an opinion on the weather."

The governess took his offered arm, and, with his aid, ascended the stairs
of the cabin in silence, each seemingly finding sufficient employment in
meditation. She was followed by the more youthful, and therefore more
active Gertrude, who joined them as they stood together, on the weather
side of the quarter-deck.

The night was rather misty than dark. A full and bright moon had arisen;
but it pursued its path, through the heavens, behind a body of dusky
clouds, that was much too dense for any borrowed rays to penetrate. Here
and there, a straggling gleam appeared to find its way through a covering
of vapour less dense than the rest, and fell upon the water like the dim
illumination of a distant taper. As the wind was fresh and easterly, the
sea seemed to throw upward from its agitated surface, more light, than it
received; long lines of white, glittering foam follo