purposes would be best served by close association with this man; he
hoped that in the course of such association he might draw something
from Cigole. But Cigole baffled him constantly. He was as polite and
courteous as all Italians are; he had an abundance of remarks all ready
about the state of the weather, the prospects of the voyage, or the
health of the seamen; but beyond these topics it was difficult to induce
him to go. Brandon stifled the resentment which he felt toward this man,
in his efforts to break down the barriers of formality which he kept up,
and sought to draw him out on the subject of the wool trade. Yet here he
was baffled. Cigole always took up the air of a man who was speaking to
a rival in business, and pretended to be very cautious and guarded in
his remarks about wool, as though he feared that Brandon would interfere
with his prospects. This sort of thing was kept up with such great
delicacy of management on Cigole's part that Brandon himself would have
been completely deceived, and would have come to consider him as nothing
more than a speculator in wool, had it not been for a certain deep
instinct within him, which made him regard this man as one who was
actuated by something far deeper than mere regards for a successful
speculation.

Cigole managed to baffle the most dextrous efforts and the most delicate
contrivances of Brandon. He would acknowledge that he was an Italian,
and had been in all parts of Italy, but carefully refrained from telling
where he was born. He asserted that this was the first time that he had
been in the Eastern seas. He remarked once, casually, that Cigole was a
very common name among Italians. He said that he had no acquaintances at
all in England, and was only going there now because he heard that there
was a good market for wool. At another time he spoke as though much of
his life had been passed in Marseilles, and hinted that he was a partner
of a commercial house there.