had loved according to his rough manner from a child began to fade faded more and sun and more from day to day shrank with instinctive pain from the thought of exchanging a word with if he had had good news to carry to her the honest captain would have the newly decorated house and splendid furniture � though these connected with the lady he had seen at church were awful to him � and made his way into her presence with a dark horizon gathering around their common hopes however that darkened every hour the captain almost felt as if he were a new misfortune and affliction to her and was scarcely less afraid of a visit from than from mrs herself it was a chill dark evening and captain had ordered a fire to be kindled in the little back parlor now more than ever like the cabin of a ship the rain fell fast the wind blew hard and out on the by that stormy bedroom of his old friend to take an observation of the weather the captain s heart died within him when he saw how wild and desolate it was not that he associated the weather of that time with poor walter s destiny or doubted that if providence had doomed him to be lost and it was over long ago but that beneath an outward influence quite distinct from the subject matter of his thoughts the captain s spirits sank and his hopes turned pale as those of wiser men had done before him and will often do again captain addressing his face to the sharp wind and rain looked up at the heavy that was flying fast over the wilderness of house tops and looked for something cheery there in vain the prospect near at hand was no better in sundry tea and other rough boxes at his feet the of rob the were like so many dismal breezes getting up a crazy of a with a at his eye once visible from the street but long out and complained upon his as the shrill blast spun him round and round and with him cruelly upon the captain s coarse blue the cold rain drops started like steel beads and he could hardly maintain himself against the stiff nor that came pressing against him to him over the and throw him on the below if there were any hope alive that evening and son s the captain thought as he held his hat on it certainly kept house wasn t out of doors so the captain shaking his head in a manner went in to look for t captain descended slowly to the little back parlor and seated in his accustomed chair looked for it in the fire but it was not there though the fire was bright he took out his tobacco box and pipe and himself to smoke looked for it in the red glow from the bowl and in the wreaths of that curled upward from his lips but there was not so much as an of the of hope s anchor in either he tried a glass of but melancholy truth was at the bottom of that well and he couldn t finish it he made a turn or two in the shop and looked for hope among the instruments but they worked out for the missing ship in spite of any opposition he could offer that ended at the bottom of the lone sea the wind still rushing and the rain still against the closed shutters the captain brought to before the wooden upon the counter and thought as he dried the little officer s uniform with his sleeve how many years the had seen during which few changes � hardly any � had among his ship s company how the changes had come all together one day as it might be and of what a sweeping kind they were here was the little society of the back parlor broken up and scattered far and wide here was no audience for lovely even if there had been anybody to sing it which there was not for the captain was as morally certain that nobody but he could execute that ballad as he was that he had not the spirit under existing circumstances to attempt it there was no bright face of r in the house � here the captain transferred his sleeve for a moment from the s uniform to his own cheek � the familiar wig and buttons of were a vision of the past richard was knocked on the head and every plan and project in with the lay without mast or on the waste of waters as the captain with a dejected face stood revolving these thoughts and the partly in the tenderness of old acquaintance and partly in the absence of his mind a and son at the shop door communicated a frightful start to the frame of rob the seated on the counter whose large eyes bad been intently on the captain s face and who had been within himself for the five time whether the captain could have done a murder that he had such an evil conscience and was always running away what s that said captain softly somebody s captain answered rob the the captain with an abashed and guilty air immediately on tip toe to the little parlor and locked himself in rob opening the door would have with the visitor on he threshold if the visitor had come in female guise but the figure being of the male sex and rob s orders only applying to women rob held the door open and allowed it to enter which it did very quickly glad to get out of the driving rain a job for and co at any rate said the visitor looking over his shoulder at his own legs which were very wet and covered with oh 