they had stared at him with such guilty expressions that he was not surprised to find they had neglected their studies entirely since having become his runners : very little notion of arithmetic , none at all of the more advanced mathematics , no french whatsoever , and when he handed them gibbon 's book , which he had brought to the deck meaning to read to temeraire later , roland stuttered so over the words that temeraire put back his ruff and began to correct her from memory .