e in a situation that may be said to be even beneath what his
own was."

"Now you undervalue your station, Clinch. The berth of a master's-mate
in one of His Majesty's finest frigates is something to be proud of; I
was once a master's-mate--nay, Nelson has doubtless filled the same
station. For that matter, one of His Majesty's own sons may have gone
through the rank."

"Aye, gone _through_ it, as you say, sir," returned Clinch, with a husky
voice. "It does well enough for them that go _through_ it, but it's
death to them that _stick_. It's a feather in a midshipman's cap to be
rated a mate; but it's no honor to be a mate at my time of life,
Captain Cuffe."

"What's your age, Clinch? You are not much my senior?"

"Your senior, sir! The difference in our years is not as great as in our
rank, certainly, though I never shall see thirty-two again. But it's not
so much _that_, after all, as the thoughts of my poor mother, who set
her heart on seeing me with His Majesty's commission in my pocket; and
of another who set her heart on one that I'm afraid was never worthy
her affection."

"This is new to me, Clinch," returned the captain, with interest. "One
so seldom thinks of a master's-mate marrying, that the idea of your
being in that way has never crossed my mind, except in the manner of
a joke."

"Master's-mates _have_ married, Captain Cuffe, and they have ended in
being very miserable. But Jane, as well as myself, has made up her mind
to live single, unless we can see brighter prospects before us than what
my present hopes afford."

"Is it quite right, Jack, to keep a poor young woman towing along in
this uncertainty, during the period of life when her chances for making
a good connection are the best?"

Clinch stared at his commander until his eyes filled with tears. The
glass had not touched his lips since the conversation took its present
direction; and the usual hard settled character of his face was becoming
expressive once more with human emotions.

"It's not my fault, Captain Cuffe," he answered, in a low voice; "it's
now quite six years since I insisted on her giving me up; but she
wouldn't hear of the thing. A very respectable attorney wished to have
her, and I even prayed her to accept his offer; and the only unkind
glance I ever got from her eye, was when she heard me make a request
that she told me sounded impiously almost to her ears. She would be a
sailor's wife or die a maid."

"The girl has un