"Not exactly kindness. On my part at least, let us call it--mm-yas--recognition, and no more of it for the present, because--well, because the subject is complex and I must presently be off again, almost to Dorchester, damn the luck. There was a message for me at the ordinary. I've only time to snatch a bit of rest for me and Meg, and a quick meal, and a--I think, a change of shoes.... He never spoke of the _Iris_--well, he and I are not well acquainted. Certainly he hath a marvel in that ketch _Artemis_. He was good enough to take me aboard for a few minutes. I'm no sailor, but even I can see she's no common sort." "Was Shawn there? A black-haired Irishman with a green coat?" "Why, no, I noticed no such man, but there were many about." "You would have noticed and remembered him." "Mm? Mr. Kenny introduced me to two or three there at the wharf--Captain Jenks, and the mate, who was here, there and everywhere with scant time for landsmen." "The mate? What was his name?" "Why, Hanson, I think--don't you know him? We exchanged some little talk about New Haven, where he comes from, seeing I lived a year there once. Everyone was in a whirl of last-minute business. I felt in the way. Never knew there were so many different ropes to trip over." Reuben set the shoes aside. "Last-minute business?" "Why, yes." The doctor glanced down, puzzled. "What's the matter, Reuben? What did I say to disturb thee?" "Did Uncle John say when _Artemis_ was to sail?" "Why, today. You didn't know?" "No, I--pray tell me about it." "Well--he said she ought to have sailed that day, yesterday, but they were waiting on some cargo from Gloucester, salt fish I believe, that hadn't come, and Captain Jenks all of a growl about it. They left it that they would wait till today, and if it still had not come she'd sail and--let me think--put in at Sherburne on Nantucket, and find what the islanders might offer to fill her hold. To my ignorant eye she already looked low in the water, but Captain Jenks was swearing she'd ride sweeter for another twenty ton, and a dirty shame--not his exact words--she should sail light." "And then New York, from Sherburne?" "Why, no, Reuben--Barbados, thy great-uncle said." "Ah!... Thunder!--she may be gone before he's at the office. Ben hoped to sail, Mr. Welland. His heart was set on it. He was all one ache for it. He left for Boston only an hour ago, with no notion that _Artemis_ was to sail today, only hoping to persuade Uncle John to let him sign on. I felt, sir, as if I was saying good-bye. He felt it too." "I'm confused. Isn't he for Harvard in the autumn, with thee?" "Yes, but he hoped to make a quick voyage to New York and return. It was his idea she should go there, and damn it, the proposal was most sensible. Uncle John might at least have considered it. Now he'll be heartbroken. Maybe I _was_ saying good-bye to him, and not in the way I thought. He won't be the same when he comes home, not after this."