Afloat and Ashore (62 page)

"How could that be, my dear?" asked the husband; "in what would she be
better off for leaving her own property to her husband?"

"Why, by law, would she not? I don't exactly know how it would happen,
for I do not particularly understand these things; but it seems
natural that a woman would be a gainer if she made the man she was
about to marry her heir. She would have her thirds in his estate,
would she not?"

"But, Mrs. Brigham," said I, smiling, "is it quite certain
Mrs. Bradfort wishes to marry Rupert Hardinge, at all?"

"I know so little of the parties, that I cannot speak with certainty
in the matter, I admit, Captain Wallingford."

"Well, but Sarah, dear," interposed the more exacting Jane, "you are
making yourself unnecessarily ignorant. You very well know how
intimate we are with the Greenes, and they know the Winters perfectly
well, who are next-door neighbours to Mrs. Bradfort. I don't see how
you can say we haven't good means of being 'measurably'
well-informed."

Now, I happened to know through Grace and Lucy, that a disagreeable
old person, of the name of Greene did live next door to Mrs. Bradfort;
but, that the latter refused to visit her, firstly, because she did
not happen to like her, and secondly, because the two ladies belonged
to very different social circles; a sufficient excuse for not visiting
in town, even though the parties inhabited the same house. But, the
Brighams, being Salem people, did not understand that families might
reside next door to each other, in a large town, for a long series of
months, or even years, and not know each other's names. It would not
be easy to teach this truth, one of every-day occurrence, to the
inhabitant of one of our provincial towns, who was in the habit of
fancying he had as close an insight into the private affairs of all
his neighbours, as they enjoyed themselves.

"No doubt we are all as well off as most strangers in New York,"
observed the wife; "still, it ought to be admitted that we may be
mistaken. I have heard it said there is an old Mr. Hardinge, a
clergyman, who would make a far better match for the lady, than his
son. However, it is of no great moment, now; for, when our neighbour
Mrs. John Foote, saw Dr. Hosack about her own child, she got all the
particulars out of him about Mrs. Bradfort's case, from the highest
quarter, and I had it from Mrs. Foote, herself."

"I could not have believed that a physician of Dr. Hosack's eminence
and character would speak openly of the diseases of his patients," I
observed, a little tartly, I am afraid.

"Oh! he didn't," said Sarah, eagerly—"he was as cunning as a fox,
Mrs. Foote owned herself, and played her off finely; but Mrs. Foote
was cunninger than any half-dozen foxes, and got it all out of him by
negations."

"Negations!" I exclaimed, wondering what was meant by the term, though
I had understood I was to expect a little more philosophy and
metaphysics, not to say algebra, in my passengers, than usually
accompanied petticoats in our part of the world.

"Certainly,
negations
" answered the matron, with a smile as
complacent as that which usually denotes the consciousness of
intellectual superiority. "One who is a little practised, can
ascertain a fact as well by means of negatives as affirmatives. It
only requires judgment and use."

"Then Mrs. Bradfort's disease is only ascertained by the negative
process?"

"So I suppose—but what does one want more," put in the husband;—"and
that she made her will last week, I feel quite sure, as it was
generally spoken of among our friends."

Here were people who had been in New York only a month, looking out
for a ship, mere passengers as it might be, who knew more about a
family with which I had myself such an intimate connection, than its
own members. I thought it no wonder that such a race was capable of
enlightening mankind, on matters and things in general. But the game
did not end here.

"I suppose Miss Lucy Hardinge will get something by Mrs. Bradfort's
death," observed Miss Jane, "and that she and Mr. Andrew Drewett will
marry as soon as it shall become proper."

Here was a speculation, for a man in my state of mind! The names were
all right; some of the incidents, even, were probable, if not correct;
yet, how could the facts be known to these comparative strangers? Did
the art of gossiping, with all its meannesses, lies, devices,
inventions, and cruelties, really possess so much advantage over the
intercourse of the confiding and honest, as to enable those who
practise it to discover facts hidden from eye-witnesses, and
eye-witnesses, too, that had every inducement of the strongest
interest in the issue, not to be deceived? I felt satisfied, the
moment Mrs. Greene's name was mentioned, that my passengers were not
in the true New York set; and, justly enough, inferred they were not
very good authority for one half they said; and, yet, how could they
know anything of Drewett's attachment to Lucy, unless their
information were tolerably accurate?

I shall not attempt to repeat all that passed while the ship dropped
down the bay; but enough escaped the gossips to render me still more
unhappy than I had yet been, on the subject of Lucy. I could and did
despise these people; that was easy enough; but it was not so easy to
forget all that they said and surmised. This is one of the causes
attendant on the habit of loose talking; one never knowing what to
credit, and what not. In spite of all my disgust, and a firm
determination not to contribute in any manner to the stock in trade of
these people, I found great difficulty in evading their endless
questions. How much they got out of me, by means of the process of
negations, I never knew; but they got no great matter through direct
affirmatives. Something, however, persons so indefatigable, to whom
gossiping was the great aim of life, must obtain, and they ascertained
that Mr. Hardinge was my guardian, that Rupert and I had passed our
boyhoods in each other's company, and that Lucy was even an inmate of
my own house the day we sailed. This little knowledge only excited a
desire for more, and, by the end of a week, I was obliged to submit to
devices and expedients to pump me, than which even the thumbscrew was
scarcely more efficient. I practised on the negative system, myself,
with a good deal of dexterity, however, and threw my inquisitors off,
very handsomely, more than once, until I discovered that Wallace
Mortimer, determined not to be baffled, actually opened communications
with Neb, in order to get a clearer insight into my private affairs.
After this, I presume my readers will not care to hear any more about
these gentry, whose only connection with my life grew out of the
misgivings they contributed largely to create in my mind, touching the
state of Lucy's affections. This much they did effect, and I was
compelled to submit to their power. We are all of us, more or less,
the dupes of knaves and fools.

All this, however, was the fruits of several weeks' intercourse, and I
have anticipated events a little, in order to make the statements in
connection. Meeting a breeze, as has been said already, the Dawn got
over the bar, about two o'clock, and stood off the land, on an easy
bowline, in company with the little fleet of square-rigged vessels
that went out at the same time. By sunset, Navesink again dipped, and
I was once more fairly at sea.

This was at the period when the commerce of America was at its
height. The spirit shown by the young Republic in the French affair
had commanded a little respect, though the supposed tendencies of the
new administration was causing anything but a cordial feeling towards
the country to exist in England. That powerful nation, however, had
made a hollow peace with France the previous March, and the highway of
nations was temporarily open to all ships alike; a state of things
that existed for some ten months after we sailed. Nothing to be
apprehended, consequently, lay before me, beyond the ordinary dangers
of the ocean. For these last, I was now prepared by the experience of
several years passed almost entirely on board ship, during which time
I had encircled the earth itself in my peregrinations.

Our run off the coast was favourable, and the sixth day out, we were
in the longitude of the tail of the Grand Bank. I was delighted with
my ship, which turned out to be even more than I had dared to hope
for. She behaved well under all circumstances, sailing even better
than she worked. The first ten days of our passage were prosperous,
and we were mid-ocean by the 10th of the month. During this time I had
nothing to annoy me but the ceaseless
cancans
of my passengers.
I had heard the name of every individual of note in Salem; with
certain passages in his or her life, and began to fancy I had lived a
twelvemonth in the place. At length, I began to speculate on the
reason why this morbid propensity should exist so much stronger in
that part of the world than in any other I had visited. There was
nothing new in the disposition of the people of small places to
gossip, and it was often done in large towns; more especially those
that did not possess the tone of a capital. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
and Horace Walpole wrote gossip, but it was spiced with wit, as is
usual with the scandal of such places as London and Paris; whereas
this, to which I was doomed to listen, was nothing more than downright
impertinent, vulgar, meddling with the private affairs of all those
whom the gossips thought of sufficient importance to talk about. At
Clawbonny, we had our gossip too, but it was innocent, seldom
infringed much on the truth, and usually respected the right of every
person to possess certain secrets that might remain inviolate to the
world. No such rules prevailed with my passengers. Like a certain
editor of a newspaper of my acquaintance, who acts as if he fancied
all things in heaven and earth were created expressly to furnish
materials for "paragraphs," they appeared to think that everybody of
their acquaintance existed for no other purpose than to furnish them
food for conversation. There must have been some unusual cause for so
much personal
espionnage
, and, at length, I came to the
following conclusion on the subject. I had heard that church
government, among the puritans, descended into all the details of
life; that it was a part of their religious duty to watch over each
other, jog the memories of the delinquents, and serve God by ferreting
out vice. This is a terrible inducement to fill the mind with the
motes of a neighbourhood, and the mind thus stowed, as we sailors say,
will be certain to deliver cargo. Then come the institutions, with
their never-ending elections, and the construction that has been put
on the right of the elector to inquire into all things; the whole
consummated by the journals, who assume a power to penetrate the
closet, ay, even the heart,—and lay bare its secrets. Is it any
wonder, if we should become, in time, a nation of mere gossips? As for
my passengers, even Neb got to consider them as so many nuisances.

From some cause or other, whether it was having these loose-tongued
people on board or not, is more than I can say, but certain it is,
about the time Salem was handsomely cleaned out, and a heavy inroad
had been made upon Boston, that the weather changed. It began to blow
in gusts, sometimes from one point of the compass, sometimes from
another, until the ship was brought to very short canvass, from a
dread of being caught unprepared. At length, these fantasies of the
winds terminated in a tremendous gale, such as I had seldom then
witnessed; and such, indeed, as I have seldom witnessed since. It is a
great mistake to suppose that the heaviest weather occurs in the
autumnal, spring, or winter months. Much the strongest blows I have
ever known, have taken place in the middle of the warm weather. This
is the season of the hurricanes; and, out of the tropics, I think it
is also the season of
the
gales. It is true; these gales do not
return annually, a long succession of years frequently occurring
without one; but, when they do come, they may be expected, in our own
seas, in July, August, or September.

The wind commenced at south-west, on this occasion, and it blew fresh
for several hours, sending us ahead on our course, at the rate of
eleven knots. As the sea got up, and sail was reduced, our speed was a
little diminished perhaps; but we must have made more than a hundred
miles in the first ten hours. The day was bright, cloudless, genial,
and even bland; there being nothing unpleasant in the feeling of the
swift currents of the air, that whirled past us. At sunset I did not
quite like the appearance of the horizon; and we let the ship wade
through it, under her three top-sails, single-reefed, her fore-course,
and fore-top-mast staysail. This was short canvass, for a vessel that
had the wind nearly over her taffrail. At nine o'clock, second reefs
were taken in, and at ten, the mizen-top-sail was furled. I then
turned in, deeming the ship quite snug, leaving orders with the mates
to reduce the sail, did they find the ship straining, or the spars in
danger, and to call me should anything serious occur. I was not called
until daylight, when Talcott laid his hand on my shoulder, and said,
"You had better turn out, Captain Wallingford; we have a peeler, and I
want a little advice."

It was a peeler, indeed, when I reached the deck. The ship was under a
fore-course and a close-reefed main-top-sail, canvass that can be
carried a long time, while running off; but which, I at once saw, was
quite too much for us. An order was given immediately, to take in the
top-sail. Notwithstanding the diminutive surface that was exposed,
the surges given by this bit of canvass, as soon as the clews were
eased off sufficiently to allow the cloth to jerk, shook the vessel's
hull. It was a miracle that we saved the mast, or that we got the
cloth rolled up at all. At one time, I thought it would be necessary
to cut it from the yard. Fortunately the gale was steady, this day
proving bright and clear, like that which had preceded.