Whereas Stevey Todd bided a while, as a cautious man would do, until
some decent time had gone by; and then he gets me, as a friend, in
ambush inside the cabin window for precaution and testimony, and
plants the scornful typist at a distance to take photographs that
might be useful, and then he brings Madame Bill to the window.
"Now," he says to her, "supposing there was a man that we'll call
middle-aged, and that might be a cook maybe by profession, for it
wouldn't do no harm if we took it he had leanings that way, and if
you said he was as good a one as ever stepped into a galley, I
wouldn't go so far as to say so myself, nor yet deny it, for Bill had
that opinion himself, and he was a man of good judgment on things
that had to do with his line, though when his feelings moved him he
was apt to put it warm, nor I ain't denying that when his digestion
was otherwise, his remarks was sometimes contrary. Now, supposing
there was a lady, whose merits I wouldn't nowise try to state, but if
you was to say her talents was good, and her weight a hundred and
forty, I wouldn't say you was wrong, which I've heard it put that as
a Lineal Descendant she was worth climbing the volcano to see, which
supposing she complimented it by borrowing that name, it's no harm if
she did.
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