it was
produced by accident.

He was some time before he brought Mrs Cherfeuil over to his opinions.
It was in vain that she protested the direction of my fate was in other
hands, he would not listen to it for a moment; he was obstinate, and I
suppose, by what occurred, he was in the right. He declared that the
navy was the only profession that deserved my spirit and my abilities.
This declaration, perhaps, was not unacceptable at head-quarters,
wherever they might have been. For myself, I was nothing loath, and the
gallant bearing and the graceful uniform of my gallant young friend,
Frank ---, who had already seen some hard fighting, added fresh
stimulants to my desires. My friend Riprapton had now the enviable task
to impart to me the science of navigation; and, with his peculiar
notions of longitude and latitude, there can be no question as to the
merits of the tuition that I received from that very erudite person.

Shortly after I had commenced navigation under his auspices--or, more
properly speaking, that he was forced to attend to it a little under
mine--the harmony of our friendship was broken by a quarrel, yes, a
heart-embroiling quarrel--and, strange to say, about a lady. I concede
to this paragon of ushers that he was a general favourite with the sex.
I was never envious of him. All the world knows that I ever did
sufficient honour to his attractions,--I acknowledged always the graces
that appertained to his wooden progression--but still, he was not
omnipotent. Wilkes, that epitome of all manner of ugliness, often
boasted that he was only an hour behind the handsomest man that ever
existed, so far as regarded his position with the fair. Rip was but
twenty-five minutes and a fraction. In ten minutes he would talk the
generality of women into a good opinion of themselves--an easy matter,
some may think, for the ladies have one ready made; but it is a
different thing from having it and daring to own it. In ten minutes he
would make his listener, by some act or word, avow her opinion of her
own excellence; in ten more he would bring her to the same opinion as
regarded himself; and the remaining five he used to occupy with his
declaration of love, for he was very rapid in his execution,--and the
thing was done, for if he had not made a conquest he chronicled one--and
that was the same thing. He looked more for the glory than the fruition
of his passions. In one respect, he followed Chesterfield's advic