Bartleby the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall Street

BENITO CERENO 135
will hold, and will increase. By the way, your tall
man and time-piece, Atufal, stands without. By your
order, of course %
'
Don Benito recoiled, as if at some bland satirical
touch, delivered with such adroit garnish of apparent
good breeding as to present no handle for retort.
He is like one flayed alive, thought Captain Delano ;
a shrink ?
where may one touch him without causing
The servant moved before his master, adjusting a
cushion ;
*
You are right.
recalled to civility, the Spaniard stiffly replied :
The slave appears where you saw him,
according to my command ; which is, that if at the
given hour I am below, he must take his stand and abide
my coming.'
'
Ah now, pardon me, but that is treating the poor
fellow like an ex-king indeed. Ah, Don Benito,' smiling,
'
for all the licence you permit in some things, I fear lest,
at bottom, you are a bitter hard master.'
Again Don Benito shrank and this ;
time, as the good
sailor thought, from a genuine twinge of his conscience.
Again conversation became constrained. In vain
Captain Delano called attention to the now perceptible
motion of the keel gently cleaving the sea ; with lack-
lustre eye, Don Benito returned words few and reserved.
By and by, the wind having steadily risen, and still
blowing right into the harbour, bore the San Dominick
swiftly on. Rounding a point of land, the sealer at
distance came into open view.
Meantime Captain Delano had again repaired to the
deck, remaining there some time. Having at last altered
the ship's course, so as to give the reef
he returned for a few moments below.
a wide berth,
I will cheer up my poor friend this time, thought he.
'
Better and better, Don Benito,' he cried as he
blithely
re-entered :
'
there will soon be an end to your