"On the contrary, he is an unusually fine boy."
"He appears to me to want something."
"He wants food."
"Bless my soul! Has none been offered to him?"
"Yes; but he refuses it."
"Extraordinary!"
"Not at all. I understand--do I not?--that you have adopted this
infant."
The Captain nodded.
"Then your parental duties have already begun. You must come with me
at once and choose a wet nurse."
As they passed through the hall to the front-door, Captain Barker
perceived two letters lying side by side upon a table there.
He snatched them up hastily and crammed one into his pocket.
Then, handing the other to Dr. Beckerleg:
"You might give that to Jemmy when you see him, and--look here, as
soon as the child is out of the house, I think--if you went to
Jemmy--he might like to see Meg, you know."
CHAPTER III.
THE TWO PAVILIONS.
Captain Barker and Captain Runacles had been friends from boyhood.
They had been swished together at Dr. Huskisson's school, hard by the
Water Gate; had been packed off to sea in the same ship, and
afterwards had more than once smelt powder together. Admiral Blake
and Sir Christopher Mings had turned them into tough fighters by sea;
and Margaret Tellworthy had completed their education ashore, and
made them better friends by rejecting both.
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