Mrs. Sparks shook her head. It was a ladylike expression of hopeless defeat.
The Sailor grew desperate.
"See here, m'm." He took up the Evening Mercury with a fierceness which immensely surprised Mrs. Sparks; he looked so gentle that he didn't seem to have it in him. "It's like this year. I can't read a word o' this pleadin' paper. Beg parding, lady." Her face had hardened at such a term of the sea. The voice of the young man died suddenly as if thoroughly ashamed of its own vehemence.
However the vehemence had done the trick.
"I would learn," said the landlady curtly.
"Yep," said the Sailor, with the blush of a girl, "it's what I want to."
"Then why not?"
"Dunno how, m'm," he said helplessly.
"Why not go to a school?"
"Can't while I'm at work, m'm."