ow with your pluck and sinews was never
intended to potter about in a trumpery little coaster. Well, good-bye."

The two men separated; Walford to chuckle and exult over the complete
success of his suddenly planned ruse, and Leicester, with all hope and
brightness gone out of his face, to saunter despondently along the road
and back to Gosport, by way of Haslar Common, avoiding "Sea View"
altogether.

So Lucy was lost to him! Well, after all, it was no more than he had
dreaded all along; he had been a fool, and worse than a fool, to suppose
that he, a plain, unpolished seaman, could possibly have a chance of
success when pitted against a fellow like Walford--curse him! No--no,
not that, he did not mean that; why should he curse the man to whom Lucy
had given her young, fresh love? Still it was very hard to bear--very
hard; he hoped the fellow would treat her well; if not, let him look to
himself. But why should not Walford treat her well? Who could do
otherwise? Who was there in the whole wide world who could find it in
his heart to be anything but kind and loving and tender to her? And
yet--Psha! Who was he--George Leicester--that he should judge another
man? True, he had heard some very queer stories about this same
Lieutenant Walford, but doubtless they were all fabrications; Lucy was
not the girl to love a man of whom such things could possibly be true.
And as to his (Leicester's) own feelings of distrust and dislike, why
they were after all only the natural outcome of his jealousy, and were
certainly not to be relied upon as indicating faultiness of character in
his successful rival. Still, argue as he would, he had his doubts, and
he could not dispel them, and--well, it was a hard blow, coming so
suddenly, too; it was difficult to bear it patiently even _now_, and he
had a shrewd suspicion that it would be still more difficult to bear
by-and-by, when he fully realised the extent of his loss.

But it was no use fretting over it; the question was, "What was now to
be done?" He could not possibly live on the old humdrum life any
longer. He must have excitement and activity, plenty of both, to keep
his mind occupied, and to prevent his fretting over his disappointment.
"Yes, that was a happy inspiration which had led him to tell Walford he
intended giving up the _Industry_; that must be his first act. And
after that? Well, after that he would look about him, and if he could
pick up a tidy little vesse