THE UNSPEAKABLE GENTLEMAN
"I might have known you wouldn't listen to reason."
"You should have sailed with me long enough,"" said my father, "to know I never do."
"And you not even dressed for it," added Mr. Aiken. "You might be going to a party, so you might."
"I think," replied my father, "the evening will be more interesting than a purely social affair. Keep the Sea Tern well off, and we shall meet only too soon again."
"Why don't I take the boy along," Mr. Aiken suggested, eyeing me a little furtively. "He'd be right useful where we're going, and the sea would do him good, so it would."
"I fancy you'll have enough bother without him," replied my father. "Personally I have found him quite distracting during my short visit."
"Hell," said Mr. Aiken, "he wouldn't be no trouble, but he looks fair ugly here, so he does, and he knows too much. No offense, sir, but he's too up and coming to be left alone with an ignorant nigger."
My father shrugged his shoulders.
"Brutus is fond of the boy. He will not hurt him."
[174]
