"I breaks it to him short and straight.
"'Captain Caryll's compliments, sir,' says I. 'And he's dead.'
"Nelson claps his hands to his face as though I'd struck him. Then he falls on my neck afoor em all—Dons too.
"'O Ding-dong!' says he. 'I loved him.'—Just like that. 'I loved him….'
"Yes, that was Nelson all through: one alf woman, t'other alf hero.
"Then he pulls himself together.
"'But there!' he says. 'He lived like an English gentleman; and he
died like a British seaman. May I go that way when my time comes.'
And he sweeps off his cocked hat as though it might ha been to the
King, and—
"'God bless Kit Caryll,' says he."
The old man blew his nose in the darkness.
"Yes, sir," he continued, "that was your father and my friend," and then suddenly gruff—