you did, Geoffrey, but you perceive you did not. Nature has
made you quick of apprehension, but not quick enough to _foresee_ all an
old man's gossip. Come nearer, now, and let us shake hands. So go aloft,
and hold on well, for it is a windy night, and I do not desire to lose
you overboard."

The boy did as told, squeezed Bluewater's hand, and dashed out of the
cabin to conceal his tears. As for the rear-admiral, he immediately
relapsed into his fit of forgetfulness, waiting for the arrival of
Stowel.

A summons to a captain does not as immediately produce a visit, on board
a vessel of war, as a summons to a midshipman. Captain Stowel was busy
in looking at the manner in which his boats were stowed, when Cornet
told him of the rear-admiral's request; and then he had to give some
orders to the first lieutenant concerning the fresh meat that had been
got off, and one or two other similar little things, before he was at
leisure to comply.

"See me, do you say, Mr. Cornet; in his own cabin, as soon as it is
convenient?" he at length remarked, when all these several offices had
been duly performed.

The signal-officer repeated the request, word for word as he had heard
it, when he turned to take another look at the light of the Dover. As
for Stowel, he cared no more for the Dover, windy and dark as the night
promised to be, than the burgher is apt to care for his neighbour's
house when the whole street is threatened with destruction. To him the
Caesar was the great centre of attraction, and Cornet paid him off in
kind; for, of all the vessels in the fleet, the Caesar was precisely the
one to which he gave the least attention; and this for the simple reason
that she was the only ship to which he never gave, or from which he
never received, a signal.

"Well, Mr. Bluff," said Stowel to the first lieutenant; "one of us will
have to be on deck most of the night, and I'll take a slant below, for
half an hour first, and see what the admiral wishes."

Thus saying, the captain left the deck, in order to ascertain his
superior's pleasure. Captain Stowel was several years the senior of
Bluewater, having actually been a lieutenant in one of the frigates in
which the rear-admiral had served as a midshipman; a circumstance to
which he occasionally alluded in their present intercourse. The change
in the relative positions was the result of the family influence of the
junior, who had passed his senior in the grade of master and comma