"Oh, extra baggage, to be sure," I now said
to myself--"something he wishes not to be put in the hold--
something to be kept under his own eye--ah, I have it--a painting
or so--and this is what he has been bargaining about with Nicolino,
the Italian Jew." This idea satisfied me, and I dismissed my
curiosity for the nonce.
Wyatt's two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever
girls they were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never
yet seen her. He had often talked about her in my presence,
however, and in his usual style of enthusiasm. He described her as
of surpassing beauty, wit, and accomplishment. I was, therefore,
quite anxious to make her acquaintance.
On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and
party were also to visit it--so the captain informed me--and I
waited on board an hour longer than I had designed, in hope of
being presented to the bride, but then an apology came. "Mrs. W.
was a little indisposed, and would decline coming on board until
to-morrow, at the hour of sailing."
The morrow having arrived, I was going from my hotel to the wharf,
when Captain Hardy met me and said that, "owing to circumstances"
(a stupid but convenient phrase), "he rather thought the
'Independence' would not sail for a day or two, and that when all
was ready, he would send up and let me know.
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