On ordinary occasions he was talkative, and disposed to gossip; but,
whenever action and decision became necessary, he was thoughtful,
silent, and, though in a way of his own, even dignified. This last fit
was on him, and he waited for Raoul to lead the conversation. The
other, however, was disposed to be as reserved as himself, for he
quitted the knight-head, and took refuge from the splashing of the water
used in washing the decks, in his own cabin.
Two hours, though they brought the sun, with the activity and hum of the
morning, had made no great change in the relative positions of things
within and without the bay. The people of le Feu-Follet had breakfasted,
had got everything on board their little craft in its proper place, and
were moody, observant, and silent. One of the lessons that Ithuel had
succeeded in teaching his shipmates was to impress on them the necessity
of commanding their voluble propensities if they would wish to pass for
Englishmen. It is certain, more words would have been uttered in this
little lugger in one hour, had her crew been indulged to the top of
their bent, than would have been uttered in an English first-rate in
two; but the danger of using their own language, and the English
peculiarity of grumness, had been so thoroughly taught them, that her
people rather caricatured, than otherwise, _ce grand talent pour le
silence_ that was thought to distinguish their enemies. Ithuel, who had
a waggery of his own, smiled as he saw the seamen folding their arms,
throwing discontent and surliness into their countenances, and pacing
the deck singly, as if misanthropical and disdaining to converse,
whenever a boat came alongside from the shore.
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