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I could feel his body curled behindstate of sleep and arousal He ainstat the hem ofhis hand away "Remember where we are, for God’s sake!"

I could hear the shouts and barking of Ian and Rollo, galus in the cabin, featuring hawking and spitting noises, indicating the ience of Captain Free to the surface of consciousness "Oh, aye A pity, that" He reached up, squeezed my brsts with both hands, and stretched his body with voluptuous slowness against

"Ah, well," he said, relaxing reluctantly, but not yet letting go "Foeda est in coitu, um?"

"It what?"

" ‘Foeda est in coitu et breois voluptas’ " he recited obligingly " ‘Et taedat Veneiis stati, a filthy pleasure is--and short And done, we straight repent us of the sport’ "

I glanced down at the stained boards under us "Well, perhaps ‘filthy’ isn’t altogether the wrong word," I began, "but--"

"It’s not the filthiness that troubles ing over the side of the boat, shouting encouragelanced atto a look of approval as he took in my state of dishevelment "I mean to take my time about it, aye?"

This classical start to the day see influence on Jamie’s mind I could hear theh Daniel Rawlings’s casebook--at once entertained, enlightened, and appalled at the things recorded there

I could hear Jamie’s voice in the ordered rise and fall of ancient Greek I had heard that bit before-- a passage from the Odyssey He paused, with an expectant rise

"Ah…" said Ian

"What coht edge to his voice "Pay attention, man I’an again, the elegant, forht not take pleasure in hearing himself, but I did I had no Greek myself, but the rise and fall of syllables in that soft, deep voice was as soothing as the lap of water against the hull

Reluctantly accepting his nephew’s continued presence, Jauardianship of Ian with due seriousness, and had been tutoring the lad as we traveled, seizing odd moments of leisure to teach--or atterammar, and to improve his mathematics and conversational French

Fortunately, Ian had the sarasp of mathematical principles as his uncle; the side of the sant Euclidean proofs, carried out in burnt stick When the subject turned to languages, though, they found less couages and dialects with no visible effort, picking up idioh the fields In addition, he had been schooled in the Classics at the Université in Paris, and--while disagreeing now and then with soil as personal friends

Ian spoke the Gaelic and English hich he had been raised, and a sort of low French patois acquired frous, and felt this quite sufficient to his needs True, he had an iuages--acquired from exposure to a number of disreputable influences in the recent past, not least of these being his uncle--but he had no ue apprehension of the ation

Still less did he have an appreciation for the necessity of learning languages that to hi decayed beyond any possibility of usefulness Homer couldn’t compete with the excite out froreen hands

Jah clearly audible to me where I sat, directed Ian to take out the Latin book he had borrowed from Governor Tryon’s library With no recitation to distract s’s casebook

Like myself, the Doctor had plainly had solish for the bulk of his notes, dropping into Latin only for an occasional for of the bilious humor, his complexion much improved of the yellowness and pustules which have afflicted hi of the blood

"Ass," I ot liver disease?" Probably a eh he attributed this to excessive production of bile Most likely alcohol poisoning; the pustules on face and chest were characteristic of a nutritional deficiency that I saw commonly associated with excessive alcohol consumption--and God knew, that was epidemic

Beddoes, if he were still alive--a prospect I considered doubtful--was likely drinking anything up to a quart of etable in ratulating himself had likely dient in his special receipt for "black draught"

Absorbed inrendition of Plautus’s Vertue from the other side of the cabin, interrupted in every other line by Ja

" ‘Virtus praemium est optimus…’ "

"Optimum"