The writing and the wording were old-fashioned and formal.

He regretted not having yet met me, and assured me that he would see personally that my quarters were made comfortable.

For that matter he had already dispatched orders to Mr.Pike, the first mate of the _Elsinore_, to knock out the partition between my state-room and the spare state-room adjoining.

Further--and here is where my dislike for Captain West began--he informed me that if, when once well at sea, I should find myself dissatisfied, he would gladly, in that case, exchange quarters with me.
Of course, after such a rebuff, I knew that no circumstance could ever persuade me to occupy Captain West's brass bed.

And it was this Captain Nathaniel West, whom I had not yet met, who had now kept me freezing on pier-ends through four miserable hours.