all, she liked to do it; and the next morning she would be right as rain again." Temeraire was doubtful; he had never noticed Laurence weeping over a book, although sometimes he did not enjoy them very much.
But he did not quite like to press the conversation very far. To be perfectly honest, Temeraire was a little concerned - he was perhaps anxious - very well, he was afraid, that he might learn that Laurence was not so much upset as angry - He was afraid that Laurence was angry with him.
Temeraire had not quite understood what it would mean, for Laurence to be called a traitor. Of course, the Government meant to execute him or imprison them away from one another, but Temeraire had thought, with those two fates averted, that otherwise all would be much the same; and at first it seemed so: they flew together, and were given orders, and everything nearly like. But it was not the same at all. Of course there had been no other alternative but to take over the cure; only, Temeraire had not quite understood, before they went, that treason meant Laurence should be losing his life, and his crew, and his rank.
"At least," he said, "at least, you are still my captain; and after all, while there are many captains who have some sort of dragon, I am the only dragon who is a commodore - " But when he had tried this argument out privately to himself, it did not sound really consoling after all: puffing himself off, as though Laurence ought to be satisfied with Temeraire's consequence and none of his own - insult to injury, and Laurence had lost his gold bars, too.
Temeraire raised his head out of the mud and said, "Roland, do you know Captain Fenter's neck-chain, the gold one, with the emerald? It is not official, is it? Anyone might wear something of the sort?" It was a handsome piece which he and all the others at Loch Laggan had remarked, on the captain of a smug Anglewing named Orchestia; and, Temeraire thought, something very suitable to the captain of a dragon of elevated rank, however neglectful of him the Corps might be. "Do you suppose that Laurence might buy something like it, here in town?"
"I expect he could not afford it; the law-suit, you know," she said wisely, looking up from her boots, which she was blacking.
"What law-suit?" Temeraire said, puzzled.
"Over those slaves," she said, "which we let loose in Africa. Those slave-owners we carried back sued the captain, and I suppose he could not fight the suit very well, as he was in prison, so they have taken all his capital."
"Taken it?" Temeraire with difficulty kept his tail from quivering and thumping upon the ground. "Surely not all his capital," he said, in a struggling voice.
"I heard it was ten thousand pounds, or something like," Emily said.
"Ten thousand pounds!" Gentius exclaimed, horror-struck, his head jerking from the ground, the mud squelching dreadfully. "Ten thousand pounds! You did not say anything about ten thousand pounds gone. Why, that is ten of those eagles, or more," and everyone murmured shocked; even Maximus and Lily flinched, and could not quite look at Temeraire.
Temeraire felt quite staggered, and nearly ill. Laurence had not said anything beforehand; he had not said that all his treasure should be taken away; or so Temeraire tried to argue to himself. But it felt a very flimsy and weak excuse, and when he opened his mouth to make it to the others, he stopped without giving it voice. He had not troubled to find out, and now here he was, himself a commodore, showing away with jewels and two epaulettes, while Laurence had nothing but a plain coat growing every day more shabby.
"Ten thousand pounds," Gentius said again, censoriously, wagging his head from side to side. "You have certainly made a good mull of it," and Temeraire huddled himself down, feeling all the justice of the condemnation.
"But, if we had not taken over the cure," he said, rather small, "a great many dragons should have died, even who had nothing at all to do with the war, or France. It cannot have been wrong."
"If you ask me," Perscitia said, after a moment, "the French ought to have given you some treasure to make up for it, as you went on their account; at least, not precisely on their account," she amended, "but they did well out of it, so I don't