Page:Semenoff V. The battle of Tsu-Shima.pdf/168

Verner von Kursel, a Courlandian by birth, and a general favourite with every one in the Suvoroff's ward-room, had been in the merchant service almost since his cradle, and could speak every language in Europe, though he was equally bad at all of them. When they chaffed him about this in the ward-room he used to say quite seriously: “I think that I'm better at German than any other!”^[1] He had seen and been through so much that he never lost his presence of mind, and nothing prevented him meeting his friends with a pleasant smile.

And so now, nodding his head to me in the distance, he cheerily asked:

“Well! How are you passing the time?”