enty years, I think you have been very _ill_ treated. Your rank you
have, beyond a question; for of that no brave officer can well be
deprived in a regulated service; but, have you had the _commands_ to
which you are entitled?--I was a commander-in-chief when only a
rear-admiral of the blue; and then how long did I wear a broad pennant,
before I got a flag at all!"

"You forget how much I have been with you. When two serve together, one
must command, and the other must obey. So far from complaining of these
Hanoverian Boards, and First Lords, it seems to me that they have always
kept in view the hollowness of their claims to the throne, and have felt
a desire to purchase honest men by their favours."

"You are the strangest fellow, Dick Bluewater, it has ever been my lot
to fall in with! D----e me, if I believe you know always, when you _are_
ill treated. There are a dozen men in service, who have had separate
commands, and who are not half as well entitled to them, as you are
yourself."

"Come, come, Oakes, this is getting to be puerile, for two old fellows,
turned of fifty. You very well know that I was offered just as good a
fleet, as this of your own, with a choice of the whole list of
flag-officers below me, to pick a junior from; and, so, we'll say no
more about it. As respects their red riband, however, it may go
a-begging for me."

Sir Gervaise was about to answer in his former vein, when a tap at the
door announced the presence of another visiter. This time the door
opened on the person of Galleygo, who had been included in Sir
Wycherly's hospitable plan of entertaining every soul who immediately
belonged to the suite of Sir Gervaise.

"What the d----l has brought _you_ here!" exclaimed the vice-admiral, a
little warmly; for he did not relish an interruption just at this
moment. "Recollect you're not on board the Plantagenet, but in the
dwelling of a gentleman, where there are both butler and housekeeper,
and who have no occasion for your advice, or authority, to keep things
in order."

"Well, there, Sir Gervaise I doesn't agree with you the least bit; for I
thinks as a ship's steward--I mean a _cabin_ steward, and a good 'un of
the quality--might do a great deal of improvement in this very house.
The cook and I has had a partic'lar dialogue on them matters, already;
and I mentioned to her the names of seven different dishes, every one of
which she quite as good as admitted to me, was just the same as so