at table, as soon as dinner is served, and that you will treat
us as old friends--as I should treat you, if we were on board the
Plantagenet. Admiral Bluewater, will you be of our conference?"

Nothing more was said until the two admirals and the young lieutenant
were in the dressing-room of Sir Gervaise Oakes. Then the latter turned,
and addressed Wycherly, with the manner of a superior.

"I should have met you with a reproof, for this delay, young gentleman,"
he commenced, "did I not suspect, from your appearance, that something
of moment has occurred to produce it. Had the mail passed the
market-town, before you reached it, sir?"

"It had not, Admiral Oakes; and I have the satisfaction of knowing that
your despatches are now several hours on their way to London. I reached
the office just in season to see them mailed."

"Humph! On board the Plantagenet, it is the custom for an officer to
report any important duty done, as soon as it is in a condition to be
thus laid before the superior!"

"I presume that is the usage in all His Majesty's ships, Sir Gervaise
Oakes: but I have been taught that a proper discretion, when it does not
interfere with positive orders, and sometimes when it does, is a surer
sign of a useful officer, than even the most slavish attention to
rules."

"That is a just distinction, young gentleman, though safer in the hands
of a captain, perhaps, than in those of a lieutenant," returned the
vice-admiral, glancing at his friend, though he secretly admired the
youth's spirit. "Discretion is a comparative term; meaning different
things with different persons. May I presume to ask what Mr. Wycherly
Wychecombe calls discretion, in the present instance?"

"You have every right, sir, to know, and I only wanted your permission
to tell my whole story. While waiting to see the London mail start with
your despatches, and to rest my horse, a post-chaise arrived that was
carrying a gentleman, who is suspected of being a Jacobite, to his
country-seat, some thirty miles further west. This gentleman held a
secret conference with another person of the same way of thinking as
himself; and there was so much running and sending of messages, that I
could not avoid suspecting something was in the wind. Going to the
stable to look after Sir Wycherly's hunter, for I knew how much he
values the animal, I found one of the stranger's servants in discourse
with the ostler. The latter told me, when the chaise had gone, t