Page 218 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

Officers watching Chitral New Year’s Lion Dance

That evening I approached Mary (there were for some reason few rivals for
her attention) and suggested that one thing that I really needed to do before
attaining a higher rank was to learn to type, and that perhaps she would help
me, as I owned a typewriter on which I had to that time proved quite inept.
Surprisingly she thought that a good notion, so I approached the mate to clear
the idea with him, and he seemed quite happy to agree that the best place to
learn was in my cabin.
At dinner, I told the table of this plan, and Flash, with his usual generosity of
spirit, said something to the effect of, “You’re barking up the wrong tree!” I didn’t
think I was, in part because of the nanosecond that it had taken Mary to accept
my idea. However, in order to give some bottom to the scheme, I had a word in
the ear of the head waiter that it might be a good idea to relocate Mary to my table
in place of the nonentity to whom I did not recall having yet spoken.

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