"I know! Not a word in edgewise."
Nevertheless he came to the arm-chair he had occupied last night and sat down.
"Did you know the master gave me leave to take as many of his books as I wanted? He says a literary sailor is a novelty."
"All his books are in boxes in the trunk room on the second floor."
"I know it. I am going up to look at them. I wish you could read his letters. He urges me to live among men, not among books; to live out in the world and mix with men and women; to live a man's life, and not a hermit's!"
"Is he a hermit?"
"Rather. Will, Captain Will, is a man out among men; no hermit or student about him; but he has read 'Captain Cook's Voyages' with zest and asked me for something else, so I gave him 'Mutineers of the Bounty' and he did have a good time over that. Captain Will will miss me when I'm promoted to be captain."
"That will not be this voyage."
"Don't laugh at me. I have planned it all. Will is to have a big New York ship, an East Indiaman, and I'm to be content with the little Linnet."
"Does he like that?"