Kybird with his discomfiture and, of
his own desire, he freely included the unfortunate Mr. Wilks.
He passed his time in devising schemes of vengeance, and when Captain
Hardy, relenting, offered him a cabin aft, he sent back such a message
of refusal that the steward spent half an hour preparing a paraphrase.
The offer was not repeated, and the captain, despite the strong
representations of Bill and his friends, continued to eat the bread of
idleness before the mast.
CHAPTER XV
Mr. Adolphus Swann spent a very agreeable afternoon after his interview
with Nathan Smith in refusing to satisfy what he termed the idle
curiosity of his partner. The secret of Captain Nugent's whereabouts,
he declared, was not to be told to everybody, but was to be confided by a
man of insinuating address and appearance--here he looked at himself in a
hand-glass--to Miss Nugent. To be broken to her by a man with no
ulterior motives for his visit; a man in the prime of life, but not too
old for a little tender sympathy.
"I had hoped to have gone this afternoon," he said, with a glance at the
clock; "but I'm afraid I can't get away. Have you got much to do,
Hardy?"
"No," said his partner, briskly. "I've finished."
"Then perhaps you wouldn't mind doing my work for me, so that I can go?"
said Mr. Swann, mildly.
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