"Walk in the light! so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love,
His spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above.
Walk in the light! and sin, abhorr'd,
Shall ne'er defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord,
Shall cleanse from every stain."
Bernard Barton.
About an hour after the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond, had let go her anchor in
Gardiner's Bay, a coasting sloop approached her, coming from the westward.
There are two passages by which vessels enter or quit Long Island Sound,
at its eastern termination. The main channel is between Plum and Fisher's
Islands, and, from the rapidity of its currents, is known by the name of
the Race. The other passage is much less frequented, being out of the
direct line of sailing for craft that keep mid-sound. It lies to the
southward of the Race, between Plum Island and Oyster Pond Point, and is
called by the Anglo-Saxon appellation of Plum Gut. The coaster just
mentioned had come through this latter passage; and it was the impression
of those who saw her from the schooner, that she was bound up into
Peconic, or the waters of Sag Harbour. Instead of luffing up into either
of the channels that would have carried her into these places, however,
she kept off, crossing Gardiner's Bay, until she got within hail of the
schooner. The wind being quite light, there was time for the following
short dialogue to take place between the skipper of this coaster and
Roswell Gardiner, before the sloop had passed beyond the reach of the
voice.
"Is that the Sea Lion, of Oyster Pond?" demanded the skipper, boldly.
"Ay, ay," answered Roswell Gardiner, in the sententious manner of a
seaman.
"Is there one Watson, of Martha's Vineyard, shipped in that craft?"
"He was aboard here for a week, but left us suddenly. As he did not sign
articles, I cannot say that he run."
"He changed his mind, then," returned the other, as one expresses a slight
degree of surprise at hearing that which was new to him. "Watson is apt to
whiffle about, though a prime fellow, if you can once fasten to him, and
get him into blue water. Does your schooner go out to-morrow, Captain
Gar'ner?"
"Not till next day, I think," said Roswell Gardiner, with the frankness of
his nature, utterly free from the slightest suspicion that he was
communicating with one in the interests of rivals. "My mates have not yet
joined me, and I am short of my complement by two good hands. Had that
fellow Watson stuck by me, I would have given him a look at water that no
lead ever sounded."
"Ay, ay; he's a whiffler, but a good man on a sea-elephant. Then you think
you'll sail day a'ter to-morrow?"
"If my mates come over from the main. They wrote me yesterday that they
had got the hands, and were then on the look-out for something to get
across in. I've come out here to be ready for them, and to pick 'em up,
that they needn't go all the way up to the Harbour."
"That's a good traverse, and will save a long pull. Perhaps they are in
_that_ boat."
At this allusion to a boat, Roswell Gardiner sprang into his main rigging,
and saw, sure enough, that a boat was pulling directly towards the
schooner, coming from the main, and distant only a short half mile. A
glass was handed to him, and he was soon heard announcing cheerfully to
his men, that "Mr. Hazard and the second officer were in the boat, with
two seamen," and that he supposed they should _now_ have their complement.
All this was overheard by the skipper of the sloop, who caught each
syllable with the most eager attention.
"You'll soon be travelling south, I'm thinking, Captain Gar'ner?" called
out this worthy, again, in a sort of felicitating way--"Them's your chaps,
and they'll set you up."
"I hope so, with all my heart, for there is nothing more tiresome than
waiting when one is all ready to trip. My owner is getting to be
impatient too, and wants to see some skins in return for his dollars."
"Ay, ay, them's your chaps, and you'll be off the day a'ter to-morrow, at
the latest. Well, a good time to you, Captain Gar'ner, and a plenty of
skinning. It's a long road to travel, especially when a craft has to go as
far south as your's is bound!"
"How do you know, friend, whither I am bound? You have not asked me for my
sealing ground, nor is it usual, in our business, to be hawking it up and
down the country."
"All that is true enough, but I've a notion, notwithstanding. Now, as
you'll be off so soon, and as I shall not see you again, for some time at
least, I will give you a piece of advice. If you fall _in_ with a consort,
don't fall _out_ with her, and make a distant v'y'ge a cruise for an
enemy, but come to tarms, and work in company: lay for lay; and make fair
weather of what can't be helped."
The men on board the sloop laughed at this speech, while those on board
the schooner wondered. To Roswell Gardiner and his people the allusions
were an enigma, and the former muttered something about the stranger's
being a dunce, as he descended from the rigging, and gave some orders to
prepare to receive the boat.
"The chap belongs to the Hole," rejoined the master of the schooner, "and
all them Vineyard fellows fancy themselves better blue-jackets than the
rest of mankind: I suppose it must be because their island lies further
out to sea than anything we have here inside of Montauk."
Thus ended the communications with the stranger. The sloop glided away
before a light south wind, and, favoured by an ebb tide, soon rounded the
spit of sand that shelters the anchorage; and, hauling up to the eastward,
she went on her way towards Holmes' Hole. The skipper was a relative of
half of those who were interested in fitting out the rival Sea Lion, and
had volunteered to obtain the very information he took with him, knowing
how acceptable it would be to those at home. Sooth to say, a deep but wary
excitement prevailed on the Vineyard, touching not only the
sealing-islands, but also in respect to the buried treasure. The
information actually possessed by the relations of the deceased mariner
was neither very full nor very clear. It consisted principally of sayings
of Daggett, uttered during his homeward-bound passage, and transmitted by
the master of the brig to him of the sloop in the course of conferences
that wore away a long summer's afternoon, as the two vessels lay becalmed
within a hundred fathoms of each other. These sayings, however, had been
frequent and intelligible. All men like to deal in that which makes them
of importance; and the possession of his secrets had just the effect on
Daggett's mind that was necessary to render him boastful. Under such
impulses his tongue had not been very guarded; and facts leaked out which,
when transmitted to his native island, through the medium of half a dozen
tongues and as many fancies, amounted to statements sufficient to fire the
imaginations of a people much duller than those of Martha's Vineyard.
Accustomed to converse and think of such expeditions, it is not surprising
that a few of the most enterprising of those who first heard the reports
should unite and plan the adventure they now actually had in hand. When
the intelligence of what was going on on Oyster Pond reached them,
everything like hesitation or doubt disappeared; and from the moment of
the nephew's return in quest of his uncle's assets, the equipment of the
"Humses' Hull" craft had been pressed in a way that would have done credit
to that of a government cruiser. Even Henry Eckford, so well known for
having undertaken to cut the trees and put upon the waters of Ontario two
double-bank frigates, if frigates they could be termed, each of which was
to mount its hundred guns, in the short space of sixty days, scarce
manifested greater energy in carrying out his contract, than did these
rustic islanders in preparing their craft to compete with that which they
were now certain was about to sail from the place where their kinsman had
breathed his last.
These keen and spirited islanders, however, did not work quite as much in
the dark as our accounts, unexplained, might give the reader reason to
suppose. It will be remembered that there was a till to the chest which
had not been examined by the deacon. This till contained an old mutilated
journal, not of the last, but of one or two of the earlier voyages of the
deceased; though it had detached entries that evidently referred to
different and distant periods of time. By dint of study, and by putting
together sundry entries that at first sight might not be supposed to have
any connection with each other, the present possessor of that chest had
obtained what he deemed to be very sufficient clues to his uncle's two
great secrets. There were also in the chest several loose pieces of paper,
on which there were rude attempts to make charts of all the islands and
keys in question, giving their relative positions as it respected their
immediate neighbours, but in no instance giving the latitudes and
longitudes. In addition to these significant proofs that the reports
brought through the two masters were not without a foundation, there was
an unfinished letter, written by the deceased, and addressed as a sort of
legacy, "to any, or all of Martha's Vineyard, of the name of Daggett."
This address was sufficiently wide, including, probably, some hundreds of
persons: a clan in fact; but it was also sufficiently significant. The
individual into whose hands it first fell, being of the name, read it
first, as a matter of course, when he carefully folded it up, and placed
it in a pocket-book which he was much in the habit of carrying in his own
pocket. On what principle this letter, unfinished and without a signature,
with nothing indeed but its general and comprehensive address to point out
its origin as well as its destination, was thus appropriated to the
purposes of a single individual, we shall not stop to inquire. Such was
the fact, however, and none connected with the equipment of the Sea Lion,
of Holmes' Hole, knew anything of the existence of that document, its
present possessor excepted. He looked it over occasionally, and deemed the
information it conveyed of no trifling import, under all the circumstances
of the case.
Both the enterprises of which we have given an opening account were
perfectly characteristic of the state of society in which they were
brought into existence. Deacon Pratt, if he had any regular calling, was
properly a husbandman, though the love of money had induced him to invest
his cash in nearly every concern around him, which promised remunerating
returns. The principal owners of the Sea Lion, of Holmes' Hole, were
husbandmen also; folk who literally tilled the earth, cradled their own
oats and rye, and mowed their own meadows. Notwithstanding, neither of
these men, those of the Vineyard any more than he of Oyster Pond, had
hesitated about investing of his means in a maritime expedition, just as
if they were all regular ship-owners of the largest port in the Union.
With such men, it is only necessary to exhibit an account with a fair
prospect of large profits, and they are ever ready to enter, into the
adventure, heart, hand, and pocket. Last season, it may have been to look
for whales on the coast of Japan; the season before that, to search for
islands frequented by the seals; this season, possibly, to carry a party
out to hunt for camelopards, set nets for young lions, and beat up the
quarters of the rhinoceros on the plains of Africa: while the next, they
may be transporting ice from Long Pond to Calcutta and Kingston--not to
say to London itself. Of such materials are those descendants of the
Puritans composed; a mixture of good and evil; of the religion which
clings to the past, in recollection rather than in feeling, mingled with a
worldly-mindedness that amounts nearly to rapacity; all cloaked and
rendered decent by a conventional respect for duties, and respectable and
useful, by frugality, enterprise, and untiring activity.
Roswell Gardiner had not mistaken the persons of those in the boat. They
proved to be Phil Hazard, his first officer; Tim Green, the second mate;
and the two sealers whom it had cost so much time and ingenuity to obtain.
Although neither of the mates even suspected the truth, no sooner had they
engaged the right sort of man than he was tampered with by the agents of
the Martha's Vineyard concern, and spirited away by means of more tempting
proposals, before he had got quite so far as to sign the articles. One of
the motives for sending Watson across to Oyster Pond had been to induce
Captain Gardiner to believe he had engaged so skilful a hand, which would
effectually prevent his attempting to procure another, until, at the last
moment, he might find himself unable to put to sea for the want of a
complement. A whaling or a sealing voyage requires that the vessel should
take out with her the particular hands necessary to her specific object,
though, of late years, the seamen have got so much in the habit of
'running,' especially in the Pacific, that it is only the craft that
strictly belong to what may be termed the whaling communities, that bring
back with them the people they carry out, and not always them.
But here had Roswell Gardiner his complement full, and nearly everything
ready to sea. He had only to go up to the Harbour and obtain his
clearance, have a short interview with his owner, a longer with Mary, and
be off for the antarctic circle, if indeed the ice would allow him to get
as far south. There were now sixteen souls on board the Sea Lion, a very
sufficient number for the voyage on which she was about to sail. The
disposition or rating of the crew was as follows, viz.
1. Roswell Gardiner, master.
2. Philip Hazard, chief mate.
3. Timothy Green, second do.
4. David Weeks, carpenter.
5. Nathan Thompson, seaman.
6. Sylvester Havens, do.
7. Marcus Todd, do.
8. Hiram Flint, do.
9. Joshua Short, seaman.
10. Stephen Stimson, do.
11. Bartlett Davidson, do.
12. Peter Mount, landsman.
13. Arcularius Mott, do.
14. Robert Smith, do.
15. Cato Livingston, cook.
16. Primus Floyd, boy.
This was considered a good crew, on the whole. Every man was a native
American, and most of them belonged to old Suffolk. Thompson, and Flint,
and Short, and Stimson, four capital fellows in their way, came from the
main; the last, it was said, from as far east as Kennebunk. No matter;
they were all reasonably young, hale, active fellows, with a promise of
excellent service about every man of them. Livingston and Floyd were
coloured persons, who bore the names of the two respectable families in
which they or their progenitors had formerly been slaves. Weeks was
accustomed to the sea, and might have been rated indifferently as a
carpenter or as a mariner. Mount and Mott, though shipped as landsmen,
were a good deal accustomed to the water also, having passed each two
seasons in coasters, though neither had ever yet been really _outside_, or
seen blue water.
It would not have been easy to give to the Sea Lion a more efficient crew;
yet there was scarce a real seaman belonging to her--a man who could have
been made a captain of the forecastle on board a frigate or a ship of the
line. Even Gardiner, the best man in his little craft in nearly every
respect, was deficient in many attainments that mark the thorough sea-dog.
He would have been remarkable anywhere for personal activity, for courage,
readiness, hardihood, and all those qualities which render a man useful in
the business to which he properly belonged; but he could hardly be termed
a skilful leadsman, knew little of the finesse of his calling, and was
wanting in that in-and-in breeding which converts habit into an instinct,
and causes the thorough seaman to do the right thing, blow high or blow
low, in the right way, and at the right moment. In all these respects,
however, he was much the best man on board; and he was so superior to the
rest as fully to command all their respect. Stimson was probably the next
best seaman, after the master.
The day succeeding that on which the Sea Lion received the remainder of
her people, Roswell Gardiner went up to the Harbour, where he met Deacon
Pratt, by appointment. The object was to clear the schooner out, which
could be done only at that place. Mary accompanied her uncle, to transact
some of her own little domestic business; and it was then arranged between
the parties, that the deacon should make his last visit to his vessel in
the return-boat of her master, while Roswell Gardiner should take Mary
back to Oyster Pond, in the whale-boat that had brought her and her uncle
over. As Baiting Joe, as usual, had acted as ferryman, it was necessary to
get rid of him, the young sailor desiring to be alone with Mary. This was
easily enough effected, by a present of a quarter of a dollar. The boat
having two lugg sails, and the wind being light and steady, at south-west,
there was nothing to conflict with Roswell Gardiner's wishes.
The young sailor left the wharf at Sag Harbour about ten minutes after the
deacon had preceded him, on his way to the schooner. As the wind was so
light and so fair, he soon had his sheets in, and the boat gliding along
at an easy rate, which permitted him to bestow nearly all his attention on
his charming companion. Roswell Gardiner had sought this occasion, that he
might once more open his heart to Mary, and urge his suit for the last
time, previously to so long an absence. This he did in a manly frank way,
that was far from being unpleasant to his gentle listener, whose
inclinations, for a few minutes, blinded her to the resolutions already
made on principle. So urgent was her suitor, indeed, that she should
solemnly plight her faith to him, ere he sailed, that a soft illusion came
over the mind of one as affectionate as Mary, and she was half-inclined to
believe her previous determination was unjustifiable and obdurate. But the
head of one of her high principles, and clear views of duty, could not
long be deceived by her heart, and she regained the self-command which had
hitherto sustained her in all her former trials, in connection with this
subject.
"Perhaps it would have been better, Roswell," she said, "had I taken leave
of you at the Harbour, and not incurred the risk of the pain that I
foresee I shall both give and bear, in our present discourse. I have
concealed nothing from you; possibly I have been more sincere than
prudence would sanction. You know the only obstacle there is to our union;
but that appears to increase in strength, the more I ask you to reflect on
it--to try to remove it."
"What would you have me do, Mary! Surely, not to play the hypocrite, and
profess to believe that which I certainly do not, and which, after all my
inquiries, I _cannot_ believe."
"I am sorry it is so, on every account," returned Mary, in a low and
saddened tone. "Sorry, that one of so frank, ingenuous a mind, should find
it impossible to accept the creed of his fathers, and sorry that it must
leave so impassable a chasm between us, for ever."
"No, Mary; that can never be! Nothing but death can separate us for so
long a time! While we meet, we shall at least be friends; and friends love
to meet and to see each other often."
"It may seem unkind, at a moment like this, Roswell, but it is in truth
the very reverse, if I say we ought not to meet each other here, if we are
bent on following our own separate ways towards a future world. My God is
not your God; and what can there be of peace in a family, when its two
heads worship different deities? I am afraid that you do not think
sufficiently of the nature of these things.
"I did not believe you to be so illiberal, Mary! Had the deacon said as
much, I might not have been surprised; but, for one like you to tell me
that my God is not your God, is narrow, indeed!"
"Is it not so, Roswell? And, if so, why should we attempt to gloss over
the truth by deceptive words? I am a believer in the Redeemer, as the Son
of God; as one of the Holy Trinity; while you believe in him only as a
man--a righteous and just, a sinless man, if you will, but as a man only.
Now, is not the difference in these creeds immense? Is it not, in truth,
just the difference between God and man? I worship my Redeemer; regard him
as the equal of the Father--as a part of that Divine Being; while you look
on him as merely a man without sin--as a man such as Adam probably was
before the fall."
"Do we know enough of these matters, Mary, to justify us in allowing them
to interfere with our happiness?"
"We are told that they are all-essential to our happiness--not in the
sense you may mean, Roswell, but in one of far higher import--and we
cannot neglect them, without paying the penalty."
"I think you carry these notions too far, dearest Mary, and that it is
possible for man and wife most heartily to love each other, and to be
happy in each other, without their thinking exactly alike on religion. How
many good and pious women do you see, who are contented and prosperous as
wives and mothers, and who are members of meeting, but whose husbands make
no profession of any sort!"
"That may be true, or not. I lay no claim to a right to judge of any
other's duties, or manner of viewing what they ought to do. Thousands of
girls marry without _feeling_ the very obligations that they profess to
reverence; and when, in after life, deeper convictions come, they cannot
cast aside the connections they have previously formed, if they would; and
probably would not, if they could. That is a different thing from a young
woman, who has a deep sense of what she owes to her Redeemer, becoming
deliberately, and with a full sense of what she is doing, the wife of one
who regards her God as merely a man--I care not how you qualify this
opinion, by saying a pure and sinless man; it will be man, still. The
difference between God and man is too immense, to be frittered away by any
such qualifications as that"
"But, if I find it _impossible_ to believe all you believe, Mary, surely
you would not punish me for having the sincerity to tell you the truth,
and the whole truth."
"No, indeed, Roswell," answered the honest girl, gently, not to say
tenderly. "Nothing has given me a better opinion of your principles,
Roswell--a higher notion of what your upright and frank character really
is, than the manly way in which you have admitted the justice of my
suspicions of your want of faith--of faith, as I consider faith can alone
exist. This fair dealing has made me honour you, and esteem you, in
addition to the more girlish attachment that I do not wish to conceal from
you, at least, I have so long felt."
"Blessed Mary!" exclaimed Roswell Gardiner, almost ready to fall down on
his knees and worship the pretty enthusiast, who sat at his side, with a
countenance in which intense interest in his welfare was beaming from two
of the softest and sweetest blue eyes that maiden ever bent on a youth in
modest tenderness, whatever disposition he might be in to accept her God
as his God. "How can one so kind in all other respects, prove so cruel in
this one particular!"
"Because that one particular, as you term it, Roswell, is all in all to
her," answered the girl, with a face that was now flushed with feeling. "I
must answer you as Joshua told the Israelites of old--'Choose you, this
day, whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served, that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land ye dwell: _but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord_.'"
"Do you class me with the idolaters and pagans of Palestine?" demanded
Gardiner, reproachfully.
"You have said it, Roswell. It is not I, but yourself, who have thus
classed you. You worship your reason, instead of the one true and living
God. This is idolatry of the worst character, since the idol is never seen
by the devotee, and he does not know of its existence."
"You consider it then idolatry for one to use those gifts which he has
received from his Maker, and to treat the most important of all subjects,
as a rational being, instead of receiving a creed blindly, and without
thought?"
"If what you call thought could better the matter; if it were sufficient
to comprehend and master this subject, there might be force in what you
say. But what is this boasted reason, after all? It is not sufficient to
explain a single mystery of the creation, though there are thousands. I
know there are, nay there _must_ be, a variety of opinions among those who
look to their reasons, instead of accepting the doctrine of revelation,
for the character of Christ; but I believe all, who are not open infidels,
admit that the atonement of his death was sufficient for the salvation of
men: now, can you explain this part of the theory of our religion any more
than you can explain the divine nature of the Redeemer? Can you _reason_
any more wisely touching the fall, than touching the redemption itself? I
know I am unfit to treat of matters of this profound nature," continued
Mary, modestly, though with great earnestness and beauty of manner; "but,
to me, it seems very plain that the instant circumstances lead us beyond
the limits of our means of comprehension, we are to _believe_ in, and not
to reason on, revelation. The whole history of Christianity teaches this.
Its first ministers were uneducated men; men who were totally ignorant
until enlightened by their faith; and all the lessons it teaches are to
raise faith, and faith in the Redeemer, high above all other attainments,
as the one great acquisition that includes and colours every other. When
such is the fact, the heart does not make a stumbling-block of every thing
that the head cannot understand."
"I do not know how it is," answered Roswell Gardiner, influenced, though
unconvinced; "but when I talk with you on this subject, Mary, I cannot do
justice to my opinions, or to the manner in which I reason on them with my
male friends and acquaintance. I confess it does appear to me illogical,
unreasonable--I scarce know how to designate what I mean--but,
improbable, that God should suffer himself, or his Son, to be crucified by
beings that he himself created, or that he should feel a necessity for any
such course, in order to redeem beings he had himself brought into
existence."
"If there be any argument in the last, Roswell, it is an argument as much
against the crucifixion of a man, as against the crucifixion of one of the
Trinity itself. I understand you to believe that such a being as Jesus of
Nazareth did exist; that he was crucified for our redemption; and that the
atonement was accepted, and acceptable before God the Father. Now, is it
not just as difficult to understand how, or why, this should be, as to
understand the common creed of Christians?"
"Surely, there is a vast difference between the crucifixion of a
subordinate being, and the crucifixion of one who made a part of the
Godhead itself, Mary! I can imagine the first, though I may not pretend to
understand its reasons, or why it was necessary it should be so; but, I am
certain you will not mistake my motive when I say, I cannot imagine the
other."
"Make no apologies to me, Roswell; look rather to that Dread Being whose
teachings, through chosen ministers, you disregard. As for what you say, I
can fully feel its truth. I do not pretend to _understand_ why such a
sacrifice should be necessary, but I _believe_ it, _feel_ it; and
believing and feeling it, I cannot but adore and worship the Son, who
quitted heaven to come on earth, and suffered, that we might possess
eternal life. It is all mystery to me, as is the creation itself, our
existence, God himself, and all else that my mind is too limited to
comprehend. But, Roswell, if I believe a part of the teachings of the
Christian church, I must believe all. The apostles, who were called by
Christ in person, who lived in his very presence, who knew nothing except
as the Holy Spirit prompted, worshipped him as the Son of God, as one 'who
thought it not robbery to be equal with God;' and shall I, ignorant and
uninspired, pretend to set up my feeble means of reasoning, in opposition
to their written instructions!"
"Yet must each of us stand or fall by the means he possesses, and the use
he makes of them."
"That is quite true, Roswell; and ask yourself the use to which you put
your own faculties. I do not deny that we are to exercise our reason, but
it is within the bounds set for its exercise. We may examine the evidence
of Christianity, and determine for ourselves how far it is supported by
reasonable and sufficient proofs; beyond this we cannot be expected to go,
else might we be required to comprehend the mystery of our own existence,
which just as much exceeds our understanding as any other. We are told
that man was created in the image of his Creator, which means that there
is an immortal and spiritual part of him that is entirely different from
the material creature One perishes, temporarily at least--a limb can be
severed from the body and perish, even while the body survives; but it is
not so with that which has been created in the image of the deity. That is
imperishable, immortal, spiritual, though doomed to dwell awhile in a
tenement of clay. Now, why is it more difficult to believe that pure
divinity may have entered into the person of one man, than to _believe_,
nay to _feel_, that the image of God has entered into the persons of so
many myriads of men? You not only overlook all this, Roswell, but you
commit the, to me inexplicable, mistake of believing a part of a mystery,
while you hesitate about believing all. Were you to deny the merits of the
atonement altogether, your position would be much stronger than it is in
believing what you do. But, Roswell, we will not embitter the moment of
separation by talking more on this subject, now. I have other things to
say to you, and but little time to say them in. The promise you have asked
of me to remain single until your return, I most freely make. It costs me
nothing to give you _this_ pledge, since there is scarce a possibility of
my ever marrying another."
Mary repeated these words, or rather this idea in other words, to Roswell
Gardiner's great delight; and again and again he declared that he could
now penetrate the icy seas with a light heart, confident he should find
her, on his return, disengaged, and, as he hoped, as much disposed to
regard him with interest as she then was. Nevertheless, Gardiner did not
deceive himself as to Mary's intentions. He knew her and her principles
too well, to fancy that her resolution would be very likely to falter.
Notwithstanding their long and intimate knowledge of each other, at no
time had she ever betrayed a weakness that promised to undermine her high
sense of duty; and as time increased her means of judging of what those
duties were, her submission to them seemed to be stronger and stronger.
Had there been anything stern or repulsive in Mary's manner of manifesting
the feeling that was uppermost in her mind, one of Roswell Gardiner's
temperament would have been very apt to shake off her influence; but, so
far from this being the case, she ever met him and parted from him with a
gentle and ingenuous interest in his welfare, and occasionally with much
womanly tenderness. He knew that she prayed for him daily, as fervently as
she prayed for herself; and even this, he hoped, would serve to keep alive
her interest in him, during his absence. In this respect our young sailor
showed no bad comprehension of human nature, nothing being more likely to
maintain an influence of this sort, than the conviction that on ourselves
depends the happiness or interests of the person beloved.