The Adventures of Harry Richmond. Complete. George Meredith

he was sharp of hearing. His allusion to the humming of the tune of the mice gave Temple a fit of remorse, and he apologized.

      ‘Ay,’ said the captain, ‘it is so; own it: frivolity’s the fruit of that training that’s all for the flesh. But dip you into some o’ my books on my shelves here, and learn to see living man half skeleton, like life and shadow, and never to living man need you pray forgiveness, my lad.’

      By sheer force of character he gained the command of our respect. Though we agreed on deck that he had bungled his story, it impressed us; we felt less able to cope with him, and less willing to encounter a storm.

      ‘We shall have one, of course,’ Temple said, affecting resignation, with a glance aloft.

      I was superstitiously of the same opinion, and praised the vessel.

      ‘Oh, Priscilla’s the very name of a ship that founders with all hands and sends a bottle on shore,’ said Temple.

      ‘There isn’t a bottle on board,’ said I; and this piece of nonsense helped us to sleep off our gloom.

      CHAPTER XIV. I MEET OLD FRIENDS

      Notwithstanding the prognostications it pleased us to indulge, we had a tolerably smooth voyage. On a clear cold Sunday morning we were sailing between a foreign river’s banks, and Temple and I were alternately reading a chapter out of the Bible to the assembled ship’s crew, in advance of the captain’s short exhortation. We had ceased to look at ourselves inwardly, and we hardly thought it strange. But our hearts beat for a view of the great merchant city, which was called a free city, and therefore, Temple suggested, must bear certain portions of resemblance to old England; so we made up our minds to like it.