So that the crew were all sound in mind and
body in spite of their alarming names.
Ruggiero sat on the box and waited, meditating upon the probable
occupations of gentlemen who habitually slept till ten o'clock in the
morning and sometimes till twelve. From time to time he brushed an
almost imperceptible particle of dust from his very smart blue cloth
knees, and settled the in-turned collar of the perfectly new blue
guernsey about his neck. It was new, and it scratched him disagreeably,
but it was highly necessary to present a prosperous as well as a
seamanlike appearance on such an important occasion. Nothing could have
been more becoming to him than the dark close-fitting dress, showing as
it did the immense breadth and depth of his chest, the clean-cut sinewy
length of his limbs and the easy grace and strength of his whole
carriage. His short straight fair hair was brushed, too, and his young
yellow beard had been recently trimmed. Altogether a fine figure of a
man as he sat there waiting.
Suddenly he was aware of a wonderful vision moving towards him down the
broad corridor--a lovely dark face with liquid brown eyes, an exquisite
figure clad in a well-fitted frock of white serge, a firm, smooth step
that was not like any step he had ever heard.
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