true-blue English-French. "_Coque-a-lorrrrme_?" said the waiter. "_Je
crois que non, Monsieur----._" "_Pourquoi n'avez vous pas du vin de
Cockalorum_?" said Greville, with great indignation. "_C'est une chose
monstrueuse. Nous sommes les invites de la grande nation Francaise;
nous sommes les officiers de sa Majeste la Reine d'Angleterre; et vous
n'avez pas du vin de Cockalorum!_" There was enough of other wine, at
all events,' added Frank King. 'I am afraid there was a good deal of
headache next morning among the younger officers of her Majesty's
fleet.'

'Weren't you afraid,' said Nan, who had forgotten what shyness was by
this time; 'weren't you afraid the French might be tempted to take a
mean advantage and capture the fleet bodily?'

'It would have been no more mean advantage,' said he, with a laugh,
'than we used to take in fighting them when they were sea-sick.'

'Sailors sea-sick?' she exclaimed.

'Yes, that's just where it was,' he said, and the friendly interest he
displayed in this young lady was very wonderful. Already they seemed
to have known each other for a quite indefinite time. 'Mind you,
people laugh nowadays at the old belief that one English sailor was as
good as seven French ones. But it was quite true; and the explanation
is simple enough. The fact was that the English kept such a strict
blockade of the French ports that the French sailors never had a proper
chance of finding their sea legs. They never got out. When they did
come out they had to fight; and how can you expect a sea-sick man to
fight? But I was talking of that chum of mine, Greville. He was the
coolest hand I ever came across. Once he and I--when we were mids, you
know--had to go down by rail from Genoa to Spezia----'

At this moment the music slowly ceased; and the kaleidoscopic groups
out there, that had been going through all sorts of interminglings and
combinations, lost cohesion, as it were, and melted away into the
murmuring and amorphous crowd. Miss Nan knew very well that she ought
now to return to her mamma; but how was she to break in upon this
story? When one has already begun to tell you something, more
particularly when that something is about himself and an old
companion--and especially if you do not wish to be perplexed with
invitations to dance--it is not polite to interrupt.

So the young lieutenant, taking no notice whatever of the cessation of
the dancing, continued his story, and told sev