The mate left the boat in lugubrious silence as though he were being taken away to mortal torment: then he began to hum loudly, an indication that he was in deep thought.
The young Telemachus was not able to be present at the interview but he hung around the closed door and succeeded in hearing a few loud words which slipped through the cracks.

His mother was speaking with greater frequency.

Toni was reiterating in a dull voice the same excuse:--"I don't know.

The captain will come at any moment...." But when the mate found himself outside the house, his wrath broke out against himself, against his cursed character that did not know how to lie, against all women bad and good.

He believed he had said too much.