mate was "struck by something."

This distinction hardly amounted to a difference. On the other hand,
everybody admitted that, after he picked up his strength a bit, he
seemed even smarter in his movements than before.

One day in Calcutta, Captain Johns, pointing out to a visitor his
white-headed chief mate standing by the main-hatch, was heard to say
oracularly:

"That man's in the prime of life."

Of course, while Bunter was away, I called regularly on Mrs. Bunter
every Saturday, just to see whether she had any use for my services. It
was understood I would do that. She had just his half-pay to live on--it
amounted to about a pound a week. She had taken one room in a quiet
little square in the East End.

And this was affluence to what I had heard that the couple were reduced
to for a time after Bunter had to give up the Western Ocean trade--he
used to go as mate of all sorts of hard packets after he lost his ship
and his luck together--it was affluence to that time when Bunter would
start at seven o'clock in the morning with but a glass of hot water
and a crust of dry bread. It won't stand thinking about, especially for
those who know Mrs. Bunter. I had seen something of them, too, at that
time; and it just makes me shudder to remember what that born lady had
to put up with. Enough!

Dear Mrs. Bunter used to worry a good deal after the _Sapphire_ left
for Calcutta. She would say to me: "It must be so awful for poor