der, he, after
his usual preamble of unmeaning oaths, answered in these words:--"D--
you, you jury-legg'd dog, you would give all the stowage in your hold to
be as sound as I am; and as for being taken in tow, d'ye see, I'm not
so disabled that I can lie my course, and perform my voyage without
assistance; and, egad! no man shall ever see Hawser Trunnion lagging
astern, in the wake of e'er a b-- in Christendom."

Mrs. Grizzle, who every morning interrogated her brother with regard to
the subject of his night's conversation with his friends, soon received
the unwelcome news of the commodore's aversion to matrimony; and justly
imputing the greatest part of his disgust to the satirical insinuations
of Mr. Hatchway, resolved to level this obstruction to her success, and
actually found means to interest him in her scheme. She had indeed, on
some occasions, a particular knack at making converts, being probably
not unacquainted with that grand system of persuasion which is adopted
by the greatest personages of the age, and fraught with maxims much
more effectual than all the eloquence of Tully or Demosthenes, even
when supported by the demonstrations of truth; besides, Mr. Hatchway's
fidelity to his new ally was confirmed by his foreseeing, in his
captain's marriage, an infinite fund of gratification for his own
cynical disposition. Thus, therefore, converted and properly cautioned,
he for the future suppressed all the virulence of his wit against the
matrimonial state; and as he knew not how to open his mouth in the
positive praise of any person whatever, took all opportunities of
excepting Mrs. Grizzle, by name, from the censures he liberally bestowed
upon the rest of her sex. "She is not a drunkard, like Nan Castick,
of Deptford," he would say; "not a nincompoop, like Peg Simper, of
Woolwich; not a brimstone, like Kate Koddle, of Chatham; nor a shrew,
like Nell Griffin, on the Point, Portsmouth" (ladies to whom, at
different times, they had both paid their addresses); "but a tight,
good-humoured, sensible wench, who knows very well how to box her
compass; well-trimmed aloft, and well-sheathed alow, with a good cargo
under her hatches." The commodore at first imagined this commendation
was ironical; but, hearing it repeated again and again, was filled with
astonishment at this surprising change in the lieutenant's behaviour;
and, after a long fit of musing, concluded that Hatchway himself
harboured a matrimonial design on th