" The backsides of them--he had observed--were
thinner than paper from constant sitting down in offices, yet otherwise
they looked first-rate and would last for years. It was all appearance.
"It was," he said, "bloomin' easy to be a gentleman when you had a clean
job for life." They disputed endlessly, obstinate and childish; they
repeated in shouts and with inflamed faces their amazing arguments;
while the soft breeze, eddying down the enormous cavity of the foresail,
distended above their bare heads, stirred the tumbled hair with a touch
passing and light like an indulgent caress.
They were forgetting their toil, they were forgetting themselves.
The cook approached to hear, and stood by, beaming with the inward
consciousness of his faith, like a conceited saint unable to forget his
glorious reward; Donkin, solitary and brooding over his wrongs on the
forecastle-head, moved closer to catch the drift of the discussion below
him; he turned his sallow face to the sea, and his thin nostrils moved,
sniffing the breeze, as he lounged negligently by the rail. In the
glow of sunset faces shone with interest, teeth flashed, eyes sparkled.
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