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Ere long , from his first visit in the air , he withdrew into his cabin . But after that morning , he was every day visible to the crew ; either standing in his pivot - hole , or seated upon an ivory stool he had ; or heavily walking the deck . As the sky grew less gloomy ; indeed , began to grow a little genial , he became still less and less a recluse ; as if , when the ship had sailed from home , nothing but the dead wintry bleakness of the sea had then kept him so secluded . And , by and by , it came to pass , that he was almost continually in the air ; but , as yet , for all that he said , or perceptibly did , on the at last sunny deck , he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast . But the Pequod was only making a passage now ; not regularly cruising ; nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to , so that there was little or nothing , out of himself , to employ or excite Ahab , now ; and thus chase away , for that one interval , the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow , as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon . Nevertheless , ere long , the warm , warbling persuasiveness of the pleasant , holiday weather we came to , seemed gradually to charm him from his mood . For , as when the red - cheeked , dancing girls , April and May , trip home to the wintry , misanthropic woods ; even the barest , ruggedest , most thunder - cloven old oak will at least send forth some few green sprouts , to welcome such glad - hearted visitants ; so Ahab did , in the end , a little respond to the playful allurings of that girlish air . More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look , which , in any other man , would have soon flowered out in a smile . CHAPTER 29 . Enter Ahab ; to Him , Stubb . Some days elapsed , and ice and icebergs all astern , the Pequod now went rolling through the bright Quito spring , which , at sea , almost perpetually reigns on the threshold of the eternal August of the Tropic . The warmly cool , clear , ringing , perfumed , overflowing , redundant days , were as crystal goblets of Persian sherbet , heaped up — flaked up , with rose - water snow . The starred and stately nights seemed haughty dames in jewelled velvets , nursing at home in lonely pride , the memory of their absent conquering Earls , the golden helmeted suns ! For sleeping man , ’ twas hard to choose between such winsome days and such seducing nights . But all the witcheries of that unwaning weather did not merely lend new spells and potencies to the outward world . Inward they turned upon the soul , especially when the still mild hours of eve came on ; then , memory shot her crystals as the clear ice most forms of noiseless twilights . And all these subtle agencies , more and more they wrought on Ahab’s texture . Old age is always wakeful ; as if , the longer linked with life , the less man has to do with aught that looks like death . Among sea - commanders , the old greybeards will oftenest leave their berths to visit the night - cloaked deck . It was so with Ahab ; only that now , of late , he seemed so much to live in the open air , that truly speaking , his visits were more to the cabin , than from the cabin to the planks . “ It feels like going down into one’s tomb , ” — he would mutter to himself — “ for an old captain like me to be descending this narrow scuttle , to go to my grave - dug berth . ”
Назад Сторінка 99 з 430 Сторінка 99 з 430 Вперед Читайте далі з перекладом Створіть безкоштовний акаунт: 7 днів Pro, далі 20 перекладів слів на день або платний тариф.
