amusing themselves just as much as they amuse others.'

This was not so bad. Nan's face had brightened; she regarded him with
her clear eyes.

'You are thinking of Captain Marryat,' said he, laughing. 'But times
have changed sadly for the middy since then. It isn't all beer and
skittles now. Nowadays, the poor chap can scarcely call his soul his
own; and if he is going in for his Three Ones----'

'I beg your pardon; what is that?' she said, with a grave interest.

'Trifling little things,' said he, jocosely. 'Only first-class
certificates in gunnery, seamanship, and mathematics; then, to finish
up with, the unhappy youth has to look forward to an interview or two
with the hydrographer, who isn't at all a gentleman to be made a fool
of.'

How was it that she knew instinctively that this young officer had got
his Three Ones--nay, that he had carried them off easily, triumphantly?
What was there in his manner, or the shape of his forehead, or his
expression, that rendered her perfectly certain that he had nothing to
fear from all the hydrographers ever born?

'Why, even in my time, I can remember, when the middy was allowed a
good deal more law,' he continued; and now he had sat down beside her,
and her eyes met his quite frankly. 'I remember a fearful scene at
Cherbourg, at a ball there; that was when the fleet went over, and
there was a great round of festivities. Well, this ball, I think, was
given by the Mayor--I am not quite sure; but, at all events, the
midshipmites were invited with the rest, and those who could get leave
went of course. Well, we had the run of the refreshment-room, and we
used it. There was far too much champagne, and all our seniors were in
the ball-room,--the Duke of Somerset, and the whole of them,--so we set
to work to chaff the waiters in unknown tongues. Anything more patient
or friendly than the conduct of these amiable creatures I never saw.
They entirely entered into the spirit of the thing, and grinned and
nodded in high glee when we inquired about their mothers and
sisters--in English, of course; and then we tried bad French on them,
and Welsh, with a touch of Lancashire thrown in; and then they grinned
all the more, and shrugged their shoulders. My chum Greville was the
worst, I think; he kept asking for all sorts of ridiculous things, and
was very angry when he couldn't get them. "_Avez-vous du vin de
Cockalorum_?" he asked of one fellow: of course Greville spoke real