Hook felt a gloomy desire to make his dying speech , lest presently there should be no time for it . `` Better for Hook , '' he cried , `` if he had had less ambition ! '' It was in his darkest hours only that he referred to himself in the third person . `` No little children to love me ! '' Strange that he should think of this , which had never troubled him before ; perhaps the sewing machine brought it to his mind . For long he muttered to himself , staring at Smee , who was hemming placidly , under the conviction that all children feared him . Feared him ! Feared Smee ! There was not a child on board the brig that night who did not already love him . He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand , because he could not hit with his fist , but they had only clung to him the more . Michael had tried on his spectacles . To tell poor Smee that they thought him lovable ! Hook itched to do it , but it seemed too brutal . Instead , he revolved this mystery in his mind : why do they find Smee lovable ? He pursued the problem like the sleuth-hound that he was . If Smee was lovable , what was it that made him so ? A terrible answer suddenly presented itself -- `` Good form ? '' Had the bo ` sun good form without knowing it , which is the best form of all ? He remembered that you have to prove you do n't know you have it before you are eligible for Pop -LSB- an elite social club at Eton -RSB- . With a cry of rage he raised his iron hand over Smee 's head ; but he did not tear .
What arrested him was this reflection : `` To claw a man because he is good XXXXX , what would that be ? ''
Feared Hook answer conviction elite form machine person problem time