“I can’t call to mind exactly,” he said at length. “But, you may rely upon it, I said everything I could against you. But she never did care much for you. She told me so herself.”
“I wish you joy of your bargain,” said Evans solemnly, after a long pause.
“What do you mean?” demanded the mate sharply.
“A girl like that,” said the skipper, with a lump in his throat, “who can carry on with two men at once ain’t worth having. She’s not my money, that’s all.”
The mate looked at him in honest bewilderment.
“Mark my words,” continued the skipper loftily, “you’ll live to regret it. A girl like that’s got no ballast. She’ll always be running after fresh neckties.”
“You put it down to the necktie, do you?” sneered the mate wrathfully.
“That and the clothes, cert’nly,” replied the skipper.
“Well, you’re wrong,” said the mate. “A lot you know about girls. It wasn’t your old clothes, and it wasn’t all your bad behaviour to her since she’s been aboard. You may as well know first as last. She wouldn’t have nothing to do with me at first, so I told her all about Mary Jones.”
“You told her that?” cried the skipper fiercely.