mself that night. He was
sailing in this reckless way in a mere fit of temper intensified by the
consciousness of his own unreasonableness. Elizabeth made a mistake, he
told himself by way of justification, if she thought that he on board
his poor brig gave in to any officer in the navy, let him be who he
might. She should see that he, too, was a man who could beat--he
required no North Star under him, he would perform the same feat in a
leaky old barge.

A couple of times when the cook, who looked after Elizabeth's wants,
came up the cabin stairs, Salve inquired how she was getting on, and
heard each time that she was sitting up not yet undressed. The last time
the good-natured cook had added--

"She wants badly to see you, captain--she isn't accustomed to this sort
of thing."

He made no reply further than a scornful contraction of his features
which was not visible to the other, and resumed his staggering walk to
leeward, between the companion and the wheel.

Elizabeth meanwhile had been sitting a prey to most distracted thoughts.
When she went below with her child, she had a dull feeling at her heart
that some great sorrow had come or was coming over her, and she had sat
for some time almost without the power to think. He had never treated
her like that before.

She set about putting the child to bed then in her usual way, as if she
had been a mere machine. For him the rolling berth was only a rocking
cradle, and he was soon sleeping quietly without an idea of danger. She
stood with her arm leaning over the edge of the berth, supporting him,
and gazing on his dimpled face; the lamp that swung to and fro under the
beam, shedding a dim light over the narrow cabin, with its small table,
and pegs full of seamen's clothes, moving solemnly backwards and
forwards on the wall. Between the creaking of the ship's timbers and the
noise of ropes being dragged across the deck, Salve's voice could be
heard in harsh tones of command, and every now and then there would be a
sudden concussion that would make the whole vessel shake, and the floor
would seem to go from under her feet, so that she had to hold on by the
rail of the berth, and keep the child from falling out as best she could
at the same time. Whenever they had had such weather before, Salve had
always come down from time to time to see her. Now--she didn't know what
to think. From what the cook had told her, she gathered that they were
beating with unjustifiable r