have been better established if the commodore had offered marriage a few years earlier. Mrs. Painter put it even more forcefully than this. At the deadly insult Mrs. Lock broke out in impassioned accents:
"What you think? That vile hussy of a Painter woman, she say me no Commodore Lock's wife. Me lose my—what you call it—wedding 'tifcate on board ship, so me no have proof now—but when we come to Bombay, my commodore he kicks dirty little Painter out of the service, and me get ten thousand rupees of defamation damage. That Painter woman's father am a common, dirty boatman!"
At this Mrs. Painter, with lofty disdain, let fall the remark: "Behold the she-devil and her two little imps!"
The sailors felt so little respect for the commodore's wife that one of them coarsely observed, within her hearing:
"If we run short of them penguins' eggs. Bill, and there ain't nothin' else to eat, we 'll pop the old girl's young 'uns into the pot for a bit of broth."
This was reported to Captain Greig by the explosive Mrs. Lock, who declared that the sailors had called her names much stronger than "old girl." The chivalrous commander was resolved that no man of his crew should insult a woman and go un-
