Here the medical voices preponderated, and expressions such as these became distinct—“Do you accuse me of ignorance, sir–r–r?”
“No, sir–r–r. I merely assert that you know nothing at all of the matter.”
In the midst of this uproar I was walking the quarter-deck with the purser.
“What a terrible noise they are making in the cabin,” I observed. “What can they be doing?”
“Invaliding the surgeon,” said the marine officer, who had just joined us, looking wise.
“Doubted,” said the purser.
“What a dreadful operation it must be,” said a young Irish young-gentlemen (all young gentlemen in the navy are not young), “but, for the honour of the service, he might take it any how, for the life of him.”
“The very thing he is trying to do,” was the purser’s reply.
But let us return to the cabin, and collect what we can here, and record the sentences as they obtain the mastery, at either end of the table.
“Look at her step,” said a captain, speaking of his lady.