"Sit down, Captain," said Nestir, when the captain entered. "No. Over
there, in the comfortable chair. There. Are you comfortable, Captain?"
"Of course I am."
"Good. I have a question to ask you, Captain."
"I say?"
Nestir rubbed his bald head. "Sir," he said by way of preamble, "I know
you have the greatest sensibility in questions of duty."
"That's quite so, y'know. I pride myself upon it, if I do say so."
"Exactly. _Argot y calpex._ No sacrifice is too great."
"True; true."
"Well, then, say the first day of Wenslaus, that would be--ah, a
Zentahday--I may depend upon you to wed Wanda Miller, the bosun's
daughter, yes?"
"No," said the captain.
"Come now, sir. I realize she is the daughter of a crewman, but--"
"Father," said the captain, "did I ever tell you about the time I led
an expeditionary force against Zelthalta?"
"I don't believe you have."
"Then I will tell you. Came about this way. I was given command of
fifty-three thousand Barains. Savage devils. Uncivilized, but fine
fighters. I was to march them ninety-seven miles across the desert
that...."
"Captain! I fear I must be very severe with you. I will be forced to
announce in the mess hall this evening that you have refused to do
your duty when it was plainly and properly called to your attention."
"Very well, Father," the captain said after several minutes. "I will do
it."
He was trembling slightly.
* * * * *
That morning was to be the time of the captain's wedding. He had
insisted that it be done in privacy. For the ceremony, he refused to
make the slightest change in his everyday uniform; nor would he consent
to Nestir's suggestion that he carry a nosegay of hydroponic flowers.
He had intended, after the ceremony, to go about his duty as if nothing
out of the ordinary had happened; but after it was done with, the vast
indignity of it came home to him even more poignantly than he had
imagined it would.
Without a word, he left the priest's stateroom and walked slowly,
ponderously, with great dignity, to his own.
It was a very fine stateroom. The finest, but for Nestir's, in the
whole ship. The velvet and gold drapes (his single esthetic joy) were
scented with exotic perfume. The carpet was an inch and a half thick.
He walked through his office without breaking his stride.
The bed was large and fluffy. An unbroken expanse of white coverlette
jutting out from the far bulkhead. It looked as soft as feather down.
Without even a sigh, he threw himself upon the bed and lay very, very
quiet. His left leg was suspended in the air, intersecting, at the
thigh, the plane of the coverlet at forty-five degrees; the number of
degrees remained stiffly, unrelaxingly forty-five.
Only after a long, long time did he roll over on his back and then it
was merely to stare fixedly at the ceiling.
It is entirely possible that he would have lain there until Doomsday
had not his introspection been, around noon, interrupted by an
apologetic tap on the door.
"Come in," he whispered, hoping she would not hear him and go away.
But she heard him.
"Husband," Wanda said simply. She closed the door behind her and stood
staring at him.
"Madam," he said, "I hope you will have the kindness not to refer to me
by that indecent appelation a second time."
"Gee. You say the cutest things. I'm awful glad you had to marry me,
huh."
The captain stood up, adjusted his coat and his shoulders, and walked
across the room to the dressing table. He opened the left-hand drawer,
removed a bottle, poured himself half a water-glass full and drank it
off.
"Ah," he said.
He returned to the bed and sat down.
"Can'tcha even say hello ta little ol' me, huh?" she asked.
"Hello," he said. "Madam, sit down. I intend to give you an instructive
lecture in the natural order of...."
"Huh?"
"Ah," he said. "Quite true, of course."
She walked over to the chair and sat down. "I don't like them," she
said. "Them cloth things over there."
"Those, Madam," he said, "are priceless drapes I had imported from the
province of San Xalthan. They have a long, strange history.
"About three thousand years ago, a family by the name of Soong was
forced to flee from the city of Xan because the eldest son of the
family had become involved in a conspiracy against the illustrious King
Fod. As the Soong family was traveling...."
"I don't like 'em anyway," said Wanda.
"Madam," said the captain, "kindly bring me that."
"This?"
"Yes. Thank you."
He took the doll from her. He got up again, walked to the chest of
drawers, searched around for a penknife. Finally he located it under a
stack of socks.
He returned to the bed. Sitting on the edge, he began to rip the doll
along the seams with the penknife. Very carefully he emptied the
sawdust out upon the carpet, and with equal deliberation, he cut up
the canvas covering into small patches. Within fifteen minutes, for he
worked very slowly, the doll was completely destroyed.
He laid the penknife on the night stand by his bed. He took out a match
and struck it across the bottom of his shoe; he bent over and ignited
the remains of the doll.
"You'll burn yer rug," Wanda said.
"Yes," the captain said, "I will. Be so kind as to close the door when
you leave."
V
The next day the captain appeared at mess.
The third mate said, "I want to thank you for what you done for me,
Captain."
"Don't mention it," the captain said, bisecting a pilchard with his
fork.
"It's nice Wanda gets to be in the Festival," Jane said. "It pleases my
husband so."
"I'm very excited about it all," the steward said.
The first mate turned his egg over with his fork and peered
suspiciously at the underside of it. "Hit's all right fur you uns ta
feel excited. Martha an' me are still purty bitter."
"Yes," Martha said, "I don't see why the children couldn't take care of
themselves."
"Who'd get the new crew out of ice?" John, the second mate, said.
"That," the first mate admitted, "is th' problem. Can'tcha even cook an
aig?" he asked the steward.
"What's the matter with the egg?" the third mate asked.
"Hit hain't cooked right," the first mate insisted.
"Helen," the captain said, "may I see you after the meal?"
Helen looked demurely into her plate. "Certainly, captain. But if it's
about the Changing of the Wives, I've already been asked for."
"And," John said proudly, "I'll bet she was one of the first ones
asked."
"Nestir asked my wife almost a month ago," said Harry. "She was the
very first."
"Well," the captain said, "that's what I had in mind." He turned to
survey the table. His eyes lit upon Mary, the steward's wife.