Page:Christopher Morley--Where the blue begins.djvu/186

172 “Aye,” said the Captain.

“I've three of my own,” said Gissing, with a private pang of homesickness. The skipper's cosy quarters were the most truly domestic he had seen since the evening he first fled from responsibility.

Captain Scottie was surprised. Certainly this eccentric stranger in the badly damaged wedding garments had not given the impression of a family head. Just then the steward entered with a decanter of benedictine and small glasses.

“Brew days and bonny!” said the Captain, raising his crystal.

“Secure amidst perils!” replied Gissing courteously. It was the phrase engraved upon the ship's notepaper, on which he had been writing, and it had impressed itself on his mind.

“You said you had been a General Manager.”

Gissing told, with some vivacity, of his experiences in the world of trade. The Captain poured another small liqueur.

“They're fine halesome liquor,” he said.

“Sincerely yours,” said Gissing, nodding over the glass. He was beginning to feel quite at home in the navigating quarters of the ship, and hoped