midday
Three things about him were markedly conspicuous : his smile , that embraced all of his clean-shaven Asiatic face and Asiatic eyes ; his even-rowed , white , and perfect teeth , which I deemed false until Wada ascertained otherwise for me ; and his hands and feet . It was his hands , ridiculously small and beautifully modelled , that led my scrutiny to his feet . They , too , were ridiculously small and very neatly , almost dandifiedly , shod . We had put the pilot off at midday , but the _ Britannia _ towed us well into the afternoon and did not cast us off until the ocean was wide about us and the land a faint blur on the western horizon . Here , at the moment of leaving the tug , we made our `` departure '' -- that is to say , technically began the voyage , despite the fact that we had already travelled a full twenty-four hours away from Baltimore . It was about the time of casting off , when I was leaning on the poop-rail gazing for ` ard , when Miss West joined me . She had been busy below all day , and had just come up , as she put it , for a breath of air .