I began in
quite a simple way with a question about the food of an infant. We
might, if you had taken the subject up at all warmly, have got on to
the endowment of motherhood, nature study, medical examination of
schools, the boarding-out of workhouse children, religious education,
boy scouts, eugenics, and a lot of other perfectly fascinating topics.
But what do you do? You say frankly and shamelessly that you know
nothing at all about the matter."
"But I really do not know how to feed babies. What was the use of
pretending that I do?"
"Is there--to get back to the point from which I started--is there any
subject that you do know anything about besides politics and polo
ponies?"
"I'm afraid not, J. J., except the yacht. I do know something about
her."
"Then," said Meldon, "we'll discuss her. I expect we'll come to an end
of her soon, but we can at all events decide where we'll go to-morrow."
The yacht turned out to be a more fruitful subject than Meldon
expected. The Major had made some alterations in her trim, which led
to an animated discussion. He also had a plan for changing her from a
cutter into a yawl, and Meldon was quite ready to argue out the points
of advantage and disadvantage in each rig.
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