Perhaps it would be as
well for some people, if their voices were not quite so audible as they
are to other people.'

'And, perhaps, if gentlemen who are kidnapped to pay attention to some
persons' daughters, had not sufficient discernment to pay attention to
other persons' daughters,' returned Mrs. Briggs, 'some persons would not
be so ready to display that ill-temper which, thank God, distinguishes
them from other persons.'

'Persons!' ejaculated Mrs. Taunton.

'Persons,' replied Mrs. Briggs.

'Insolence!'

'Creature!'

'Hush! hush!' interrupted Mr. Percy Noakes, who was one of the very few
by whom this dialogue had been overheard. 'Hush!--pray, silence for the
duet.'

After a great deal of preparatory crowing and humming, the captain began
the following duet from the opera of 'Paul and Virginia,' in that
grunting tone in which a man gets down, Heaven knows where, without the
remotest chance of ever getting up again. This, in private circles, is
frequently designated 'a bass voice.'

'See (sung the captain) from o--ce--an ri--sing
Bright flames the or--b of d--ay.
From yon gro--ove, the varied so--ongs--'

Here, the singer was interrupted by varied cries of the most dreadful
description, proceeding from some grove in the immediate vicinity of the
starboard paddle-box.

'My child!' screamed Mrs. Fleetwood. 'My child! it is his voice--I know
it.'

Mr. Fleetwood, accompanied by several gentlemen, here rushed to the
quarter from whence the noise proceeded, and an exclamation of horror
burst from the company; the general impression being, that the little
innocent had either got his head in the water, or his legs in the
machinery.

'What is the matter?' shouted the agonised father, as he returned with
the child in his arms.

'Oh! oh! oh!' screamed the small sufferer again.

'What is the matter, dear?' inquired the father once more--hastily
stripping off the nankeen frock, for the purpose of ascertaining whether
the child had one bone which was not smashed to pieces.

'Oh! oh!--I'm so frightened!'

'What at, dear?--what at?' said the mother, soothing the sweet infant.

'Oh! he's been making such dreadful faces at me,' cried the boy,
relapsing into convulsions at the bare recollection.

'He!--who?' cried everybody, crowding round him.

'Oh!--him!' replied the child, pointing at Hardy, who affected to be the
most concerned of the whole group.

The real state of the case at once flash