“‘Give me quite a start, you did,’ I ses.  ’I didn’t dream of you being there.’

“‘Get off!’ he ses, spluttering.  ’Get off, afore I tear you limb from limb!  ’Ow dare you follow me about and come spying round corners at me?  Wot d’ye mean by it?’

“I stood there with my arms folded acrost my chest, as calm as a cucumber.  The other party stood there watching us, and wot ’e could ’ave seen in her, I can’t think.  She was dressed more like a man than a woman, and it would have taken the good looks of twenty like her to ’ave made one barmaid.  I stood looking at ’er like a man in a dream.

“‘Well, will you know me agin?’ she ses, in a nasty cracked sort of voice.

“‘I could pick you out of a million,’ I ses—­’if I wanted to.’

“‘Clear out!’ ses the skipper.  ’Clear out!  And thank your stars there’s a lady present.’

“’Don’t take no notice of ‘im, Captain Pratt,’ ses the lady.  ’He’s beneath you.  You only encourage people like that by taking notice of ‘em.  Good-bye.’

“She held out her ’and, and while the skipper was shaking it I began to walk back to the wharf.  I ’adn’t gorn far afore I heard ’im coming up behind me, and next moment ’e was walking alongside and saying things to try and make me lose my temper.

“’Ah, it’s a pity your pore missis can’t ‘ear you!’ I ses.  ’I expect she thinks you are stowed away in your bunk dreaming of ’er, instead of saying things about a face as don’t belong to you.’

“‘You mind your bisness,’ he ses, shouting.  ’And not so much about my missis!  D’ye hear?  Wot’s it got to do with you?  Who asked you to shove your oar in?’

“‘You’re quite mistook,’ I ses, very calm.  ’I’d no idea that there was anything on as shouldn’t be.  I was never more surprised in my life.  If anybody ’ad told me, I shouldn’t ’ave believed ’em.  I couldn’t.  Knowing you, and knowing ’ow respectable you ’ave always purtended to be, and also and likewise that you ain’t no chicken——­’

“I thought ’e was going to ’ave a fit.  He ’opped about, waving his arms and stuttering and going on in such a silly way that I didn’t like to be seen with ’im.  Twice he knocked my ’at off, and arter telling him wot would ’appen if ’e did it agin, I walked off and left him.

“Even then ’e wasn’t satisfied, and arter coming on to the wharf and following me up and down like a little dog, he got in front of me and told me some more things he ’ad thought of.

“‘If I catch you spying on me agin,’ he ses, ’you’ll wish you’d never been born!’

“’You get aboard and ‘ave a quiet sleep,’ I ses.  ’You’re wandering in your mind.’

“‘The lady you saw me with,’ he ses, looking at me very fierce, ’is a friend o’ mine that I meet sometimes for the sake of her talk.’

“‘Talk!’ I ses, staring at ’im.  ’Talk!  Wot, can’t one woman talk enough for you?  Is your missis dumb? or wot?’