r uncle," he said, "be seated, and I will explain everything without
reserve."

"Seated!--nonsense! I'll walk about," said the admiral. "D--n me! I've
no patience to be seated, and very seldom had or have. Go on now, you
young scamp."

"Well--well; you abuse me, but I am quite sure, had you been in my
situation, you would have acted precisely as I have done."

"No, I shouldn't."

"Well, but, uncle--"

"Don't think to come over me by calling me uncle. Hark you,
Charles--from this moment I won't be your uncle any more."

"Very well, sir."

"It ain't very well. And how dare you, you buccaneer, call me sir, eh? I
say, how dare you?"

"I will call you anything you like."

"But I won't be called anything I like. You might as well call me at
once Morgan, the Pirate, for he was called anything he liked. Hilloa,
sir! how dare you laugh, eh? I'll teach you to laugh at me. I wish I had
you on board ship--that's all, you young rascal. I'd soon teach you to
laugh at your superior officer, I would."

"Oh, uncle, I did not laugh at you."

"What did you laugh at, then?"

"At the joke."

"Joke. D--n me, there was no joke at all!"

"Oh, very good."

"And it ain't very good."

Charles knew very well that, this sort of humour, in which was the old
admiral, would soon pass away, and then that he would listen to him
comfortably enough; so he would not allow the least exhibition of
petulance or mere impatience to escape himself, but contented himself by
waiting until the ebullition of feeling fairly worked itself out.

"Well, well," at length said the old man, "you have dragged me here,
into a very small and a very dull room, under pretence of having
something to tell me, and I have heard nothing yet."

"Then I will now tell you," said Charles. "I fell in love--"

"Bah!"

"With Flora Bannerworth, abroad; she is not only the most beautiful of
created beings--"

"Bah!"

"But her mind is of the highest order of intelligence, honour, candour,
and all amiable feelings--"

"Bah!"

"Really, uncle, if you say 'Bah!' to everything, I cannot go on."

"And what the deuce difference, sir, does it make to you, whether I say
'Bah!' or not?"

"Well, I love her. She came to England, and, as I could not exist, but
was getting ill, and should, no doubt, have died if I had not done so, I
came to England."

"But d----e, I want to know about the mermaid."

"The vampyre, you mean, sir?"

"Well, well, the vampyre."

"Then