t, and laughed at them without propriety; that,
in the excess of his hilarity, he drank a mysterious toast to the
success of all sorts of engagements, present and future; that he called
Mrs Stoutley (in joke) sister, and Emma and Lewis (also in joke) niece
and neffy; that he called Doctor Lawrence neffy, too, with a pointedness
and a sense of its being the richest possible joke, that covered with
confusion the affianced pair; and with surprise the rest of the company;
that he kicked the stooard amicably out of the room for indulging in
explosions of laughter behind his chair, and recommending him, the
Captain, to go it strong, and to clap on sail till he should tear the
mast out of 'er, or git blowed on his beam-ends; that the stooard
returned unabashed to repeat the offence unreproved; that towards the
end, the Captain began a long-winded graphic story which served to show
how his good friend and chum Willum Stout in Callyforny had commissioned
him to buy and furnish a villa for the purpose of presenting it to a
certain young lady in token of his gratitood to her for bein' such a
good and faithful correspondent to him, Willum, while he was in furrin'
parts; also, how he was commissioned to buy and furnish another villa
and present it to a certain doctor whose father had saved him from
drownin' long long ago, he would not say _how_ long ago; and how that
this villa, in which they was feedin', was one of the said villas, and
that he found it quite unnecessary to spend any more of Willum's
hard-earned gains in the purchase of the other villa, owing to
circumstances which had took place in a certain bower that very day! Is
it necessary, we again ask, to detail all this? We think not;
therefore, we won't.

When reference was made to the bower, Emma could stand, or sit, it no
longer. She rose hastily and ran blushing into the garden. Captain
Wopper uttered a thunderous laugh, rose and ran after her. He found her
in the bower with her face in her hands, and sat down beside her.

"Captain Wopper," she suddenly exclaimed, looking up and drawing a note
from her pocket, "do you know this?"

"Yes, duckie," (the Captain was quite reckless now), "it's my last
billy-doo to Netta White. I never was good at pot-hooks and hangers."

"And do you know _this_ letter?" said Emma, holding up to the seaman's
eyes her uncle William's last letter to herself.

The Captain looked surprised, then became suddenly red and confused.

"W'y