" I know a man when I see one, and you'll do
it. There's my hand, sir ! I'm with you ! You

needn't be ashamed to grasp it, for by ,

though I say it myself, it's been open to the
poor and shut to a bully ever since I could
suck milk. Yes, sir, you'll make a good ship-
mate, and I'm glad to have you on my

poop."

For the remainder of the evening his fixed
delusion was that I had come to serve under
him ; and he read me long rambling lectures
about ship's discipline, still always addressing
me as " Dr. Munro, sir ". At last, however,
his conversation became unbearable — a foul
young man is odious, but a foul old one is surely
the most sickening thing on earth. One feels
that the white upon the hair, like that upon
the mountain, should signify a height attained.
I rose and bade him good-night, with a last
impression of him leaning back in his dressing-
gown, a sodden cigar-end in the corner of his
mouth, his beard all slopped with whisky, and
his half-glazed eyes looking sideways after me
with the leer of a satyr. I had to go into the
street and walk up and down for half an hour
before I felt clean enough to go to bed.
I wanted to see no more of my neigh-
bour, but in he came as I was sitting at



THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS. 229

breakfast, smelling like a bar-parlour, with
stale wliisky oozing at every pore.
