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“Would you like some soup, doctor?” asked Sergeant Strasser, taking the tureen and its ladle. “The skipper has prevailed upon Doctor Russ to stay with us, to sew us up when the King’s enemies have occasion to tear us apart,” he explained to the table at large. This was meant with remarks of welcome, all of them civil, and in many cases quite warm, and Stephen felt strangely touched by their welcome.
“Thank you,” said Stephen to their greetings, and, “yes, sir, if you please,” to the Marine, who filled Stephen’s bowl before attending to his own.
“I’m glad to see you here, sir. Thrilled, I might even say, after the care you gave poor Franklin,” said Mister Humphries. “I thought I was going to have to write a letter, like, to Mrs. Franklin but here he is, good as new.”
“You are very kind, sir” replied Stephen, accepting the soup tureen and passing it to his right. “A glass of wine with you, if I may?”
One deck up, Jack was discovering that captains and commanding lieutenants ate alone if they did not issue invitations for guests, and that this spared them the sometimes trying nature of stale witticisms and grating personal habits (as a midshipman he had had to endure a messmate who constantly fondled her pimples), it could also be boring and lonely. Bollwerk, though present to remove empty dishes and serve fresh ones, resisted any attempt at conversation, and Jack was forced to admit that his steward was right to do so. He looked about the great cabin: yards of space, exponentially larger than any of the cabins he had occupied as a lieutenant under a skipper, or those he had shared as a midshipman, but all of it empty. No wonder some of his captains took along wives or mistresses, in spite of the regulation against it.
“May I take your plate, sir,” asked Bollwerk, see that Jack had stopped eating.
“No, no,” said Jack, but in fact he only took one more bite, chasing his food around with his fork for another minute or so before giving up and pushing the plate away.
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