The Pilot threw him a still fiercer glance, and turning away with a look of disgust, he walked along the quarterdeck towards the stern of the vessel, with an air of haughty silence, as if disdaining to answer. Boltrope kept his eyes fastened on him for a moment longer, with some appearance of scorn; but the arrival of the boat first hailed, which proved to be the barge, immediately drew his attention to other matters. Barnstable had been rowing about in the ocean for a long time, unable to find the cutter; and as he had been compelled to suit his own demeanor to those with whom he was associated, he reached the Alacrity in no very good-humored mood. Colonel Howard and his niece had maintained during the whole period the most rigid silence, the former from pride, and the latter touched with her uncle's evident displeasure; and Katherine, though secretly elated with the success of all her projects, was content to emulate their demeanor for a short time, in order to save appearances. Barnstable had several times addressed himself to the latter, without receiving any other answer than such as was absolutely necessary to prevent the lover from taking direct offence, at the same time that she intimated by her manner her willingness to remain silent. Accordingly, the lieutenant, after aiding the ladies to enter the cutter, and offering to perform the same service to Colonel Howard, which was coldly declined, turned, with that sort of irritation that is by no means less rare in vessels of war than with poor human nature generally, and gave vent to his spleen where he dared. “How's this! Mr. Boltrope!” he cried, “here are boats coming alongside with ladies in them, and you keep your gaft swayed up till the leach of the sail is stretched like a fiddle-string--settle away your peak-halyards, sir, settle away!” “Ay, ay, sir,” grumbled the master; “settle away that peak there; though the craft wouldn't forge ahead a knot in a month, with all her jibs hauled over!” He walked sulkily forward among the men, followed by the meek divine; and added, “I should as soon have expected to see Mr. Barnstable come off with a live ox in his boat as a petticoat! The Lord only knows what the ship is coming to next, parson! What between cocked hats and epaulettes, and other knee-buckle matters, she was a sort of no-man's land before; and now, what with the women and their bandboxes, they'll make another Noah's ark of her. I wonder they didn't all come aboard in a coach and six, or a one-horse shay!”