y
only did that to get this gel out for nothing. She's going out to her
father in the Grecian Arches, and some clever fool in the office thought
of sending her down to Mrs. Evans to see if she'd do to look after the
kid.'

"'Well, it's only her grub for a fortnight or so,' I remarked.

"Jack looked solemnly at me and shook his head.

"'Have you seen her?'

"'No,' I said, 'Mr. Bloom told me she was a nice little piece of goods.'
Jack snorted.

"'He's down in the cabin now talking about what's on at the theatres.
Fred, I'm in for trouble, and you'll have to stand by me.'

"And he was, for you must bear in mind that there were others on board
besides Mr. Bloom. There was the Second Mate, a young man whose
prospects were tarnished by a weakness for secret drinking. And there
was young Siddons, a stripling just out of his apprenticeship and
uncertificated, the son of a well-to-do merchant in a country town. Jack
used to say there was too much of the lah-di-dah about him, and was down
on him time and again. All the same he liked the boy, as I did, too, for
Siddons was a gentleman--the only one on board, I used to think. He got
the D. S. O. the other day for bombing something or other in Germany. He
was what modern, educated smart women call 'a charming boy' or 'a pretty
little boy.' Not that he was effeminate, by any means. He was simply one
of those to whom virtuous sentiment is a passionate necessity. Instead
of playing in the gutters of life, as so many of us do, his young body
and soul were on tip-toe for the coming of love. You can see it when
they are like that. There is a thirsty look about the lips, a turn for
moodiness, a sudden dilation of the pupils as they catch your glance,
and a quick flush, very pretty to see. And sometimes, I am informed,
they find a woman worthy of the gifts they bear....

"We had a couple of engineers, too, but they were scarcely to be classed
with young Siddons. They were like a good many of us, useful,
shop-soiled articles with plenty of the meretricious conventional
sexuality which passes for passion when stimulated. But neither of them
would have got a look from a modern, educated smart woman. The Third I
didn't know very much about. He came and went, and the principal
impression I have of him now is that he was married. The Second had what
I should call an oppressively incondite mind. He had a cold avidity for
facts. Unlike most seamen he never read fiction unless it was some bo