to have fretted themselves to the utmost degree of tenuity from disappointment in love:  as for the nose, it had a pearly round tear hanging at its tip, as if it wept.  The dress of Mr Vanslyperken was hidden in a great coat, which was very long, and buttoned straight down.  This great coat had two pockets on each side, into which its owner’s hands were deeply inserted, and so close did his arms lie to his sides, that they appeared nothing more than as would battens nailed to a topsail yard.  The only deviation from the perpendicular was from the insertion of a speaking-trumpet under his left arm, at right angles with his body.  It had evidently seen much service, was battered, and the clack Japan worn off in most parts of it.  As we said before, Mr Vanslyperken walked his quarter-deck.  He was in a brown study, yet looked blue.  Six strides brought him to the taffrail of the vessel, six more to the bows, such was the length of his tether—­and he turned, and turned again.

But there was another personage on the deck, a personage of no small importance, as he was all in all to Mr Vanslyperken, and Mr Vanslyperken was all in all to him; moreover, we may say, that he is the hero of the tail.  This was one of the ugliest and most ill-conditioned curs which had ever been produced:—­ugly in colour; for he was of a dirty yellow, like the paint served out to decorate our men-of-war by his Majesty’s dock-yards:—­ugly in face; for he had one wall-eye, and was so far under-jawed as to prove that a bull-dog had had something to do with his creation:—­ugly in shape; for although larger than a pointer, and strongly built, he was coarse and shambling in his make, with his forelegs bowed out.  His ears and tail had never been docked, which was a pity, as the more you curtailed his proportions, the better looking the cur would have been.  But his ears, although not cut, were torn to ribbons by the various encounters with dogs on shore, arising from the acidity of his temper.  His tail had lost its hair from an inveterate mange, and reminded you of the same appendage to a rat.  Many parts of his body were bared from the same disease.  He carried his head and tail low, and had a villanous sour look.  To the eye of a casual observer, there was not one redeeming quality that would warrant his keep; to those who knew him well, there were a thousand reasons why he should be hanged.  He followed his master with the greatest precision and exactitude, walking aft as he walked aft, and walking forward with the same regular motion, turning when his master turned, and moreover, turning in the same direction; and, like his master, he appeared to be not a little nipped with the cold, and, as well as he, in a state of profound meditation.  The name of this uncouth animal was very appropriate to his appearance, and to his temper.  It was Snarleyyow.

At last, Mr Vanslyperken gave vent to his pent-up feelings.  “I can’t, I won’t stand this any longer,” muttered the lieutenant, as he took his six strides forward.  At this first sound of his master’s voice the dog pricked up the remnants of his ears, and they both turned aft.  “She has been now fooling me for six years;” and as he concluded this sentence, Mr Vanslyperken and Snarleyyow had reached the taffrail, and the dog raised his tail to the half cock.