Well, it's no use making excuses
for what's inexcusable. I watched; but I dare say you know that there
could have been nothing inimical in this low behaviour of mine. On the
contrary. I'll tell you now what he was doing. He was helping himself
out of a decanter. I saw every movement, and I said to myself mockingly
as though jeering at Franklin in my thoughts, 'Hallo! Here's the captain
taking to drink at last.' He poured a little brandy or whatever it was
into a long glass, filled it with water, drank about a fourth of it and
stood the glass back into the holder. Every sign of a bad drinking bout,
I was saying to myself, feeling quite amused at the notions of that
Franklin. He seemed to me an enormous ass, with his jealousy and his
fears. At that rate a month would not have been enough for anybody to
get drunk. The captain sat down in one of the swivel arm-chairs fixed
around the table; I had him right under me and as he turned the chair
slightly, I was looking, I may say, down his back. He took another
little sip and then reached for a book which was lying on the table.
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