Captain Delano perceived that the cheek was bleeding. He was
about to ask the cause, when the negro's wailing soliloquy enlightened
him.

"Ah, when will master get better from his sickness; only the sour heart
that sour sickness breeds made him serve Babo so; cutting Babo with the
razor, because, only by accident, Babo had given master one little
scratch; and for the first time in so many a day, too. Ah, ah, ah,"
holding his hand to his face.

Is it possible, thought Captain Delano; was it to wreak in private his
Spanish spite against this poor friend of his, that Don Benito, by his
sullen manner, impelled me to withdraw? Ah this slavery breeds ugly
passions in man.--Poor fellow!

He was about to speak in sympathy to the negro, but with a timid
reluctance he now re-entered the cuddy.

Presently master and man came forth; Don Benito leaning on his servant
as if nothing had happened.

But a sort of love-quarrel, after all, thought Captain Delano.

He accosted Don Benito, and they slowly walked together. They had gone
but a few paces, when the steward--a tall, rajah-looking mulatto,
orientally set off with a pagoda turban formed by three or four Madras
handkerchiefs wound about his head, tier on tier--approaching with a
saalam, announced lunch in the cabin.

On their way thither, the two captains were preceded by the mulatto,
who, turning round as he advanced, with continual smiles and bows,
ushered them on, a display of elegance which quite completed the
insignificance of the small bare-headed Babo, who, as if not unconscious
of inferiority, eyed askance the graceful steward. But in part, Captain
Delano imputed his jealous watchfulness to that peculiar feeling which
the full-blooded African entertains for the adulterated one. As for the
steward, his manner, if not bespeaking much dignity of self-respect, yet
evidenced his extreme desire to please; which is doubly meritorious, as
at once Christian and Chesterfieldian.

Captain Delano observed with interest that while the complexion of the
mulatto was hybrid, his physiognomy was European--classically so.

"Don Benito," whispered he, "I am glad to see this
usher-of-the-golden-rod of yours; the sight refutes an ugly remark once
made to me by a Barbadoes planter; that when a mulatto has a regular
European face, look out for him; he is a devil. But see, your steward
here has features more regular than King George's of England; and yet
there he nods, and bows, and smi