‘Good day, sir. I hope Mrs Harte is at home. I must pay my respects and congratulate her – must thank her for the pleasure she gave us last night.’ ‘Was you at the Governor’s then?’ asked Captain Harte, who knew it perfectly well – whose dirty little trick had been based upon knowing it perfectly well. ‘If you had not gone a-caterwauling you might have been aboard your own sloop, in an officerlike manner. God strike me down, but it is a pretty state of affairs when a young fellow prefers the company of Italian fiddlers and eunuchs to taking possession of his own first command.’
