noon
So please ask me no more about it , there 's a good fellow . '' Of course I at once and finally let the subject drop , but somehow I could not help thinking about it , and wondering which of my fellow-passengers was referred to , and for the next day or two I watched to see whether any one of them exhibited more than ordinary cordiality to me ; but it was quite unavailing ; _ all _ were alike exceedingly cordial and friendly -- except Miss Onslow , who still maintained her former attitude of frigid reserve -- so , as it was , after all , a matter that only very slightly interested me , I soon forgot all about it . From this time forward , for a full month and more , life was absolutely uneventful on board the _ City of Cawnpore _ : the gale blew itself out that same night , and we got a breeze that carried us right into the north-east trades ; then we lost five days on the Line parallels ere we caught the south-east trades ; and when they left us we were baffled for two days more before getting a wind that would permit us to make any easting . We caught this fair wind early one morning in the second week of December ; and by noon it was blowing over the larboard quarter quite as strong as we wanted it , with studding-sails abroad on both sides , from the royals down , and every other inch of canvas that would draw . As the afternoon waned the breeze freshened ; but Murgatroyd had by this time got preventer backstays rigged , fore and aft , with the avowed determination of carrying on and making the very utmost of so splendid a breeze . And making the most of it , he was , with a vengeance , for the ship was sweeping along like a mist wreath , reeling off her seventeen knots by the log , when the latter was hove at the end of the first dog-watch . When I went on deck after dinner that night the sky had banked up to windward and astern of us , and heavy masses of cloud were sweeping rapidly athwart the firmament , permitting an occasional brief and hasty glimpse of the young moon and a few misty stars .