He had looked for absolute refusal at first, and expected that he would only arrive at his end after long disputes and discussion.

Therefore he doubted not that Diggory was turning the matter over and over in his mind, settling the details, and perhaps broaching the matter to the merchants he had spoken of.
The Swan, once empty, was laid up on the shore; where she dried at low tide, so that she could have her seams caulked, and a coat of pitch laid on below the waterline, and be made tight and sound for any voyage on which she might be dispatched Reuben Hawkshaw had lost his wife years before and, when in port at Plymouth, always occupied lodgings in a house a short distance from that of his cousin; spending his evenings mostly at Master Diggory's, but refusing to take his breakfast or dinner there.
"I know what is what, cousin," he would say, when the merchant pressed him and Roger to come to breakfast or dinner.

"Women are women and, as is only right, they hold to the nicety of things; and nothing displeases them more than for people to come in late for their meals.

When I am at work I work, and if when the clock strikes the hour for meals I am in the middle of a job, I see that it is finished before the men knock off.

Then there is the matter of washing and cleaning up, for one gathers much dust and dirt in the hold of a ship; so that, do what I would, Roger and I could never reckon upon being punctual, and the matter would weigh on my mind when I ought to be thinking of other things.