me--but what a d----d
old fool, I am; we'll skip that if you please."

"Nay, nay," said Flora; "that is what I want to hear."--"I haven't the
least doubt of that, in the world; but that's just what you won't hear;
none of your nonsense, Miss Flora; the old man may be a fool, but he
isn't quite an idiot."

"He's neither," said Flora; "true feelings can never disgrace any
one."--"Perhaps not; but, however, to make a long story short, somehow
or other, one day, Belinda was sitting alone, and I rudely pounced upon
her; I rather think then I must have said something that I oughtn't to
have said, for it took her so aback; I was forced, somehow or other, to
hold her up, and then I--I--yes; I'm sure I kissed her; and so, I told
her I loved her; and then, what do you think she said?"

"Why," said Flora, "that she reciprocated the passion."--"D--n my rags,"
said Jack, who at the moment came into the room, "I suppose that's the
name of some shell or other."

"You here, you villain!" said the admiral; "I thought you were
gone."--"So I was," said Jack, "but I came back for my hat, you see."

Away he went again, and the admiral resumed his story.

"Well, Miss Flora," he said, "you haven't made a good guess, as she
didn't say anything at all, she only clung to me like some wild bird to
its mother's breast, and cried as if her heart would break."--"Indeed!"

"Yes; I didn't know the cause of her emotion, but at last I got it out
of her."--"What was it?"

"Oh, a mere trifle; she was already married to somebody else, that's
all; some d----d fellow, who had gone trading about the islands, a
fellow she didn't care a straw about, that was old enough to be her
father."

"And you left her?"--"No, I didn't. Guess again. I was a mad-headed
youngster. I only felt--I didn't think. I persuaded her to come away
with me. I took her aboard my ship, and set sail with her. A few weeks
flew like hours; but one day we were hailed by a vessel, and when we
neared her, she manned a boat and brought a letter on board, addressed
to Belinda. It was from her father, written in his last moments. It
began with a curse and ended with a blessing. There was a postscript in
another hand, to say the old man died of grief. She read it by my side
on the quarter-deck. It dropped from her grasp, and she plunged into the
sea. Jack Pringle went after her; but I never saw her again."

"Gracious Heavens! what a tragedy!"--"Yes, tolerable," said the old man.

He a