"A sucker," explained Willie, "is just a sucker. It sticks to the turtle."
Madame turned to the group of officers and men who stood at a respectful distance at the opening of their tent.
"Explain please," cried she. "What is a sucker?" Captain Ching detached himself and approached.
"A sucker," he explained lucidly, "is a remora."
"Thank you," said Madame sweetly. "That is excellent as far as it goes. But what, pray, is a remora?"
Ching struggled helplessly against such dense feminine ignorance. If, in the absence of the quadruped, one asked a farmer "What is a cow?" he might become as costive in speech as poor Ching.
The voluble Ewing, who was within earshot, offered his services.
"The remora, Madame, is the fabulous creature which used to cling to the ships of our forbears, and drag them backwards with all sails set. At the high school of Paisley they used to teach me that the remora, fastening its sucker upon the galley of Marcus Antoninus, prevented him from bringing succour to his Queen Cleopatra." The pun when first uttered was accidental, but Ewing, unhappily perceiving that he had achieved a play on words, repeated the offence deliberately, which was beyond pardon.
"Your will obsairve, Madame," remarked he, "that I am a man of wut."