Under such conditions, signs can be seen only by a sharp and practised eye.

I am alluding now to troubles which are subtle often to the extent of not being understood by the very hearts they devastate or uplift.
Yes, Mr.Powell, whom the chance of his name had thrown upon the floating stage of that tragicomedy would have been perfectly useless for my purpose if the unusual of an obvious kind had not aroused his attention from the first.
We know how he joined that ship so suddenly offered to his anxious desire to make a real start in his profession.

He had come on board breathless with the hurried winding up of his shore affairs, accompanied by two horrible night-birds, escorted by a dock policeman on the make, received by an asthmatic shadow of a ship-keeper, warned not to make a noise in the darkness of the passage because the captain and his wife were already on board.

That in itself was already somewhat unusual.

Captains and their wives do not, as a rule, join a moment sooner than is necessary.
They prefer to spend the last moments with their friends and relations.