"I'm not lying. You're hearing it all. And she's dead."

"What was her name?"

"Adela.... She was little and fair; and she was a little sport. But I
only married her because I was curious. I didn't care for her. In a
couple of months I knew I'd made a mistake. She told me herself. She
knew much more than I did. She was older than I was; and she knew a lot
for her age--about men. She'd been engaged to one and another since she
was fifteen; and in ten years you get to know a good deal. I think she
knew everything about men--and I was a boy. She died two years ago.
Well, after I'd been with her for a year I broke away. She only wanted
me to fetch and carry.... She 'took possession' of me, as they say. I
went into partnership with a man who let me in badly; and Adela went
back to her work and I went back to sea. And a year later I went to
prison because a woman I was living with was a jealous cat and got the
blame thrown on to me for something I knew nothing about. D'you see?
Prison. Never mind the details. When I came out of prison I was going
downhill as fast as a barrel; and then I saw an advertisement of
Templecombe's for a skipper. I saw him, and told him all about myself;
and he agreed to overlook my little time in prison if I signed on with
him to look after this yacht. Now you see I haven't got a very good
record. I've been in prison; and I've lived with three women; and I've
got no prospects except that I'm a good sailor and know my job. But I
never did what I was sent to prison for; and, as I told you, the three
women all knew more than I did. I've never done a girl any harm
intentionally; and the last of them belongs to six years ago. Since then
I've met other girls, and some of them have run after me because I was a
sailorman. They do, you know. You're the girl I love; and I want you to
remember that I was a kid when I got married. That's the tale, Jenny;