midnight
On the last day of his visit they decided to venture on a two hours ' sail in one of the small yachts which lay there for hire . The trip had not progressed far before all , except the curate , found that sailing in a breeze did not quite agree with them ; but as he seemed to enjoy the experience , the other three bore their condition as well as they could without grimace or complaint , till the young man , observing their discomfort , gave immediate directions to tack about . On the way back to port they sat silent , facing each other . Nausea in such circumstances , like midnight watching , fatigue , trouble , fright , has this marked effect upon the countenance , that it often brings out strongly the divergences of the individual from the norm of his race , accentuating superficial peculiarities to radical distinctions . Unexpected physiognomies will uncover themselves at these times in well - known faces ; the aspect becomes invested with the spectral presence of entombed and forgotten ancestors ; and family lineaments of special or exclusive cast , which in ordinary moments are masked by a stereotyped expression and mien , start up with crude insistence to the view . Frances , sitting beside her mother 's husband , with Mr. Cope opposite , was naturally enough much regarded by the curate during the tedious sail home ; at first with sympathetic smiles . Then , as the middle-aged father and his child grew each gray-faced , as the pretty blush of Frances disintegrated into spotty stains , and the soft rotundities of her features diverged from their familiar and reposeful beauty into elemental lines , Cope was gradually struck with the resemblance between a pair in their discomfort who in their ease presented nothing to the eye in common .