noon
At last he looked to see how his boat was getting on ; but it was still pretty remote . He turned to see if Don Benito had returned ; but he had not . To change the scene , as well as to please himself with a leisurely observation of the coming boat , stepping over into the mizzen-chains , he clambered his way into the starboard quarter-gallery -- one of those abandoned Venetian-looking water-balconies previously mentioned -- retreats cut off from the deck . As his foot pressed the half-damp , half-dry sea-mosses matting the place , and a chance phantom cats-paw -- an islet of breeze , unheralded , unfollowed -- as this ghostly cats-paw came fanning his cheek ; as his glance fell upon the row of small , round dead-lights -- all closed like coppered eyes of the coffined -- and the state-cabin door , once connecting with the gallery , even as the dead-lights had once looked out upon it , but now calked fast like a sarcophagus lid ; and to a purple-black tarred-over , panel , threshold , and post ; and he bethought him of the time , when that state-cabin and this state-balcony had heard the voices of the Spanish king 's officers , and the forms of the Lima viceroy 's daughters had perhaps leaned where he stood -- as these and other images flitted through his mind , as the cats-paw through the calm , gradually he felt rising a dreamy inquietude , like that of one who alone on the prairie feels unrest from the repose of the noon . He leaned against the carved balustrade , again looking off toward his boat ; but found his eye falling upon the ribbon grass , trailing along the ship 's water-line , straight as a border of green box ; and parterres of sea-weed , broad ovals and crescents , floating nigh and far , with what seemed long formal alleys between , crossing the terraces of swells , and sweeping round as if leading to the grottoes below . And overhanging all was the balustrade by his arm , which , partly stained with pitch and partly embossed with moss , seemed the charred ruin of some summer-house in a grand garden long running to waste . Trying to break one charm , he was but becharmed anew .