"Yes, I can," he replied very slowly, and turning away his face leant a hand on the spade beside him. "Oh, Jemmy, Jemmy!" he muttered.
There was no entreaty in the words, but they pierced Captain Jemmy's heart like two stabs of a knife. He took a step forward and stretched out a hand as if to lay it on his old friend's shoulder. The little man jumped aside, faced him again, hissing out one word—
"You!"
The arm dropped.
"Jack—I'm sorry; but you have drawn the wrong conclusion."
The pair looked each other in the face for a moment, and Captain Runacles went on, but more coldly and as if repeating a task—
"Yes, the wrong conclusion. For my own part, as you once pointed out, I have a girl. I may add that I propose to train up Sophia; and I haven't the faintest doubt that, in spite of her sex, I can train her to knock your Tristram into a cocked-hat in every department of useful knowledge. At the same time it has occurred to me that, as his guardian, I am at least bound to give the boy every chance. You are teaching him gardening?"
Captain Barker nodded, with a face profoundly puzzled.
"You object to it?" he asked.
"Decidedly, under your present conditions. You are cramped for space."