THE UNSPEAKABLE GENTLEMAN
mouth was always full. I watched him, watched him with wonder—or was it horror?—I cannot remember which. And I resolved to go, to go anywhere, but never to do likewise. The result today is perhaps unfortunate. Yet watch me, my son, even in that you see the practical value of a bad example."
"Yes," I said, "I am watching you."
He seemed about to turn from the window, and then something outside held his attention.
"Ha!" he said. "A sloop is coming in—a clumsy looking vessel. Whose is it, Henry?"
I walked to the window to get a better look. but he reached out and drew me near him.
"Let us be careful of the windows this morning. he light is bad, and we have very much the same figure. There. Now you can see it—out by the bar. It carries too much canvas forward and spills half the wind. Have you seen it before, Henry?"
The sun had been trying to break through the clouds, and a few rays had crept out, and glanced on the angry gray of the water, so that it shone here and there like scratches in dull lead. The three ships near our wharf were tossing fitfully, and on all three, the
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