you
will consider them right."

"Indeed I do, and honour you for them," answered the captain. "But
still, Mr Johnson, I think that you should take the lady's opinion on
the subject. I suspect that when she knows the true state of the case,
she would far rather you remained at home than have to go knocking about
the salt ocean, without the prospect of bettering yourself."

"That's the only fault I have to find with the service," said Mr
Johnson. "Perhaps I have been dreaming, when living on in hopes that
some change might be made whereby I might benefit myself, that is, rise
in the service, which has ever been my ambition. Why should not a
warrant be a stepping-stone to a commission through extraordinary good
conduct in the navy, just as a sergeant may hope to rise in the army? I
don't mean, sir, that I wish to see the present class of boatswains
obtain commissions, but with that reward in view, a better class of men
would enter the service, and it would improve the character of the
warrant officers."

"So it might, but a large proportion would fail in obtaining their ends,
and then we should have a number of discontented warrant officers,
instead of being, as at present, the best satisfied men in the service."

"There's force in that objection, Captain Collyer; the matter requires
consideration," answered our host. "You must not rank me, however,
among the discontented ones. I have long made up my mind to take things
as they are, though I hope that I should not have been found wanting,
had I attained a far higher rank than I now hold."

While we were talking, I had observed a dapper little well-dressed man
come into the room, and look eagerly around. He soon discovered the
Baroness, and having talked to her for some time in an animated style,
he advanced with her towards us. He then ran forward, and taking Mr
Johnson's huge paw in his hand, he wrung it warmly, exclaiming--

"I congratulate you, Sir Jonathan Johnson, and your amiable and charming
lady--indeed I do, from the bottom of my heart--on your accession to
title and property. As you never saw, or indeed, I fancy, never heard
of, your relative the late baronet, your grief need not be very poignant
on that account, so we'll say nothing about it just now. I have been
working away like a mouse in a cheese ever since I got an inkling that
you were the rightful heir, and have only just discovered the last link
in the chain of evidence; and then, havin