te prevents
his becoming familiar with his officers; small wonder if he pines
occasionally for a little congenial talk to relieve his mind.

"Big Business, did you say?" Gissing remarked. "Ah, I could write you
quite an essay about that. I used to be General Manager of Beagle and
Company."

"Come into my cabin and have a liqueur," said the skipper. "Let the
essay go until to-morrow."

The Captain turned on the electric stove in his cabin, for the night
was cold. It was a snug sanctum: at the portholes were little chintz
curtains; over the bunk was a convenient reading lamp. On the wall a
brass pendulum swung slowly, registering the roll of the ship. The ruddy
shine of the stove lit up the orderly desk and the photographs of the
Captain's family.

"Yours?" said Gissing, looking at a group of three puppies with droll
Scottish faces. "Aye," said the Captain.

"I've three of my own," said Gissing, with a private pang of
homesickness. The skipper's cosy quarters were the most truly domestic
he had seen since the evening he first fled from responsibility.

Captain Scottie was surprised. Certainly this eccentric stranger in the
badly damaged wedding garments had not given the impression of a family
head. Just then the steward entered with a decanter of Benedictine and
small glasses.

"Brew days and bonny!" said the Captain, raising his crystal.

"Secure amidst perils!" replied Gissing courteously. It was the phrase
engraved upon the ship's notepaper, on which he had been writing, and it
had impressed itself on his mind.

"You said you had been a General Manager."

Gissing told, with some vivacity, of his experiences in the world of
trade. The Captain poured another small liqueur.

"They're fine halesome liquor," he said.

"Sincerely yours," said Gissing, nodding over the glass. He was
beginning to feel quite at home in the navigating quarters of the ship,
and hoped the potato-peeling might be postponed as long as possible.

"How far had you got in your essay?" asked the Captain.

"Not very far, I fear. I was beginning by laying down a few
psychological fundamentals."

"Excellent! Will you read it to me?"

Gissing went to get his manuscript, and read it aloud. The Captain
listened attentively, puffing clouds of smoke.

"I am sorry this is such a short voyage," he said when Gissing finished.
"You have approached the matter from an entirely naif and instinctive
standpoint, and it will take some time to show