Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

BENITO CERENO 101
to all appearances accidentally incommoded by one of
the sailors, violently pushed him aside, which the sailor
some way resenting, they dashed him to the deck, despite
the earnest cries of the oakum-pickers.
'
'
Don Benito,' said Captain Delano quickly,
see what is going on there ? Look !
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do you
But, seized by his cough, the Spaniard staggered, with
both hands to his face, on the point of falling. Captain
Delano would have supported him, but the servant was
more alert, who, with one hand sustaining his master,
with the other applied the cordial. Don Benito restored,
the black withdrew his support, slipping aside a little,
but dutifully remaining within call of a whisper. Such
discretion was here evinced as quite wiped away, in the
visitor's eyes, any blemish of impropriety which might
have attached to the attendant from the indecorous
conferences before mentioned ; showing, too, that if the
servant were to blame, it might be more the master's
fault than his own, since, when left to himself, he could
conduct thus well.
His glance called away from the spectacle of disorder
to the more pleasing one before him, Captain Delano
could not avoid again congratulating his host upon
possessing such a servant, who, though perhaps a little
too forward now and then, must upon the whole be
invaluable to one in the invalid's situation.
'
'
Tell me, Don Benito,' he added, with a smile—
should like to have your man here, myself —what will
you take for him ? Would fifty doubloons be any
object ?
'
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Master wouldn't part with Babo for a thousand
doubloons,' murmured the black, overhearing the offer,
and taking it in earnest, and, with the strange vanity
of a faithful slave, appreciated by his master, scorning
to hear so paltry a valuation put upon him by a stranger.
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