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said weightily: "Oh! Aye! I've been thinking it was time for you to try to escape home and get married for some silly girl." It was tacitly understood in the port that John Nieven was a fierce misogynist; and the absurd character of the sally convinced me that he designed to be nasty--very nasty--had designed to say the most crushing thing he could think of. My laugh sounded deprecatory. Nobody but a pal could be so angry as that. I became just a little crestfallen. Our chief engineer also took a characteristic view of my action, but in a kindlier spirit. He was young, too, but very thin, and with a mist of fluffy brown beard all round his haggard face. The whole day, at sea or in harbour, he could be seen walking hastily along the after- deck, wearing an intense, spiritually rapt ex- pression, which was caused by a perpetual con- sciousness of unpleasant physical sensations in his internal economy. For he was a confirmed dyspeptic. His view of my case was very easy. He said it was nothing but de
