"He is not a bad apprentice, Nellie, and John Wilkes has but seldom
cause to find fault with him, though I own that I have no great
liking myself for him; he never seems to look one well in the face,
which, I take it, is always a bad sign. I know no harm of him; but
when his apprenticeship is out, which it will be in another year, I
shall let him go his own way, for I should not care to have him on
the premises."

"Methinks you are very unjust, David. The lad is quiet and regular in
his ways; he goes twice every Sunday to the Church of St. Alphage,
and always tells me the texts of the sermons."

The Captain grunted.

"Maybe so, wife; but it is easy to get hold of the text of a sermon
without having heard it. I have my doubts whether he goes as
regularly to St. Alphage's as he says he does. Why could he not go
with us to St. Bennet's?"

"He says he likes the administrations of Mr. Catlin better, David.
And, in truth, our parson is not one of the stirring kind."

"So much the better," Captain Dave said bluntly. "I like not these
men that thump the pulpit and make as if they were about to jump out
head foremost. However, I don't suppose there is much harm in the
lad, and it may be that his failure to look one in the face is not so
much his fault as that of nature, which endowed him with a villainous
squint. Well, let us turn in; it is past nine o'clock, and high time
to be a-bed."