“Perhaps not. Make your own choice.... Do you care for poetry?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Padre looked at him sharply, an odd expression in his eyes, as if memories were pressing on him.
“I have a few books there,” he said, pointing to his cabin shelves. “Borrow them if you like, but don’t leave them sculling about the Gunroom—they wouldn’t like volumes of verse. And don’t give too much thought to them, old man. They won’t make you happier here.”
“Why not, sir,” asked John, “if I like them?”
“Because—oh, never mind why not.... Think over the question of Voluntary Subjects, Lynwood, and send in the next midshipman, will you please?”
II
The next two days were spent in sailing to Portland and in coaling ship. On their first evening in Portland the junior midshipmen had their earliest experience of Gunroom Evolutions. In this instance the Evolutions were comparatively mild, being in a manner introductory to the more serious business which was begun when the King Arthur put to sea. But these preludes, which began on a Thursday and were repeated on the following Saturday and Monday, were enough to provide for the junior midshipmen an engrossing subject of conversation whenever they were beyond the hearing of their seniors. John and Fane-Herbert landed together on Tuesday afternoon.
“Thank God,” said Fane-Herbert, “we are out of that for a few hours.”