ing a long voyage the announcement of dinner is a very
great relief every way. As had been the invariable rule throughout the
whole of the voyage, Miss Charlotte and Miss Laura Revel were placed on
the one side of Captain Drawlock, Miss Tavistock and Isabel Revel on the
other. They were flanked on the other side by Mrs and Mr Ferguson,
who thus separated them from any undue collision with the gentlemen
passengers or officers of the ship. The colonel was placed next to Mrs
Ferguson, the young writer next to her husband; then the two cadets,
supported by the doctor and purser, the remainder of the table being
filled up with the officers of the ship, with the first-mate at the
foot. Such was the order of Captain Drawlock's dinner--sailing; as
strictly adhered to as the memoranda of Commodore Bottlecock: the only
communication permitted with the young ladies under his charge (unless
married men) being to "request the honour of drinking a glass of wine
with them."

All this may appear very absurd; but a little reflection will convince
the reader to the contrary. There is a serious responsibility on a
captain of an Indiaman, who takes charge of perhaps a dozen young women,
who are to be cooped up for months in the same ship with as many young
men. Love, powerful every where, has on the waters even more potent
sway, hereditary I presume, from his mother's nativity. Idleness is the
friend of love; and passengers have little or nothing to do to while
away the tedium of a voyage. In another point, he has great advantage,
from the limited number of the fair sex. In a ball or in general
society, a man may see hundreds of women, admire many, yet fall in love
with none. Numbers increase the difficulty of choice, and he remains
delighted, but not enslaved. But on board of a ship, the continued
presence of one whom he admires by comparison out of the few,--one who,
perhaps, if on shore, would in a short time be eclipsed by another, but
who here shines without competition,--gives her an advantage which,
assisted by idleness and opportunity, magnifies her attractions, and
sharpens the arrow of all-conquering Love. Captain Drawlock perhaps
knew this from experience; he knew also that the friends of one party,
if not of both, might be displeased by any contract formed when under
his surveillance, and that his character and the character of his ship
(for ships now-a-days have characters, and very much depend upon them
for their