olloquy was interrupted.

"I'll adopt that child!" said Captain Runacles from the hearth.
He spoke aloud, but without turning his head.

Captain Barker hopped round, as if a pin were stuck into him.

"You!--adopt Meg's boy!"

"I said that."

"But you won't."

"I shall."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Jemmy; but I intend to adopt him
myself."

"I know it. You were whispering as much to the Doctor there."

"You have a little girl already."

"Precisely. That's where the difference comes in. This one, you'll
note, is a boy."

"A child of your own!"

"But not of Meg's."

Captain Runacles turned in his chair as he said this, and, reaching a
hand back to the table, drained the last bottle of burgundy into his
glass. His face was white as a sheet and his jaw set like iron.
"But not of Meg's," he repeated, lifting the glass and nodding over
it at the pair.

His friend swayed into a chair and sat facing him, his chin but
just above the table and his green eyes glaring like an owl's.

"Jemmy Runacles, _I_ adopt that boy!"

"You're cursedly obstinate, Jack."

"Having adopted him, I shall at once quit my profession and devote
the residue of my life to his education. For a year or two--that is,
until he reaches an age susceptible of tuition--I shall mature a
scheme of discipline, which--"

"My dear sir," the Doctor interposed, "surely all this is somewhat
precipitate."

"Not at all. My resolution was taken the instant you entered the
room."

"That hardly seems to me to prove--"

The little man waved aside the interruption and continued:
"Tristram--for I shall have him christened by that name--"

"He'll be called Jeremiah," decided Captain Runacles shortly.

"I've settled upon Tristram. The name is a suitable one, and
signifies that its wearer is a child of sorrow."

"Jeremiah also suggests lamentations, and has the further merit of
being my own name."

"Tristram--"

"Jeremiah--"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," cried Dr. Beckerleg, "would it not be as well
to see the infant?"

"I can imagine," Captain Barker answered, "nothing in the infant that
is likely to shake my resolution. My scheme of discipline will be
based--"

"Decidedly, Jack, I shall have to run you through," said his friend
gloomily. Indeed, the Doctor stood in instant fear of this
catastrophe; for Captain Runacles' temper was a byword, and not even
his customary dark flush looked so dangerous as the lustreless,
sullen eyes no