attendants standing near in submissive silence. "Here is
Alida, who has insisted on paying so unseasonable a visit, and, what is
worse still, on dragging me in her train, though I am past the day of
following a woman about, merely because she happens to have a pretty face.
The hour is unseasonable, and as to the motive--why, if Master Seadrift
has got a little out of his course, no great harm can come of it, while
the affair is in the hands of so discreet and amiable an officer as
yourself."

The Alderman became suddenly mute; for the door of the state-room opened,
and the individual he had named entered in person.

Ludlow needed no other explanation than a knowledge of the persons of his
guests, to understand the motive of their visit. Turning to Alderman Van
Beverout, he said, with a bitterness he could not repress--

"My presence may be intrusive. Use the cabin as freely as your own house,
and rest assured that while it is thus honored, it shall be sacred to its
present uses. My duty calls me to the deck."

The young man bowed gravely, and hurried from the place. As he passed
Alida, he caught a gleam of her dark and eloquent eye, and he construed
the glance into an expression of gratitude.

Chapter XXVI.

"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly--"

Macbeth.

The words of the immortal poet, with which, in deference to an ancient
usage in the literature of the language, we have prefaced the incidents to
be related in this chapter, are in perfect conformity with that governing
maxim of a vessel, which is commonly found embodied in its standing
orders, and which prescribes the necessity of exertion and activity in the
least of its operations. A strongly-manned ship, like a strong-armed man,
is fond of showing its physical power, for it is one of the principal
secrets of its efficiency. In a profession in which there is an unceasing
contest with the wild and fickle winds, and in which human efforts are to
be manifested in the control of a delicate and fearful machinery on an
inconstant element, this governing principle becomes of the last
importance. Where 'delay may so easily be death,' it soon gets to be a
word that is expunged from the language; and there is perhaps no truth
more necessary to be known to all young aspirants for naval success, than
that, while nothing should be attempted in a hurry, nothing should be done
without the last degree of activit