Selkirk, you find me still here, a prisoner in
my bar, and cursing all the captains who make the tour of the world
only to come afterwards and impose upon poor and inexperienced young
girls!'
Selkirk had not at first understood the lamentations of Catherine; but
a twilight commenced to dawn in his ideas; he divined that his name
had been used for an act of baseness; and, without being able to
account for it, he felt the return of an old leaven of spite, an old
hatred revived.
'Who is your husband? What is his name?' asked he, in a loud voice and
with a tone of authority.
'Do not grow angry, Sandy? Do not seek a quarrel with him now. What is
done, is done; I am his wife, do you understand? It is of no use to
recall the past.'
'And who thinks of recalling it? I simply asked you who he was?'
'You will be prudent; you promise me? Well! do you see him yonder, in
the second stall, at the same place he formerly occupied? He has just
poured out some gin to those sailors, and is drinking with them. It is
he who is standing up with an apron on.'
'Stradling!' exclaimed Selkirk, with sparkling eyes. But at the sight
of this apron, finding his old captain become a waiter, his hatred and
projects of vengeance were suddenly extinguished.
Alexander Selkirk returned to England in 1712.
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