ds, and passed but a
restless evening. This, however, was not his habit: for he generally got
on very well, by dint of playing at cribbage with the Captain under the
advice and guidance of Miss Nipper, and distracting his mind with
the calculations incidental to the game; which he found to be a very
effectual means of utterly confounding himself.

The Captain's visage on these occasions presented one of the finest
examples of combination and succession of expression ever observed. His
instinctive delicacy and his chivalrous feeling towards Florence,
taught him that it was not a time for any boisterous jollity, or violent
display of satisfaction; floating reminiscences of Lovely Peg, on
the other hand, were constantly struggling for a vent, and urging the
Captain to commit himself by some irreparable demonstration. Anon, his
admiration of Florence and Walter--well-matched, truly, and full of
grace and interest in their youth, and love, and good looks, as they
sat apart--would take such complete possession of hIm, that he would lay
down his cards, and beam upon them, dabbing his head all over with his
pockethandkerchief; until warned, perhaps, by the sudden rushing forth
of Mr Toots, that he had unconsciously been very instrumental, indeed,
in making that gentleman miserable. This reflection would make the
Captain profoundly melancholy, until the return of Mr Toots; when he
would fall to his cards again, with many side winks and nods, and polite
waves of his hook at Miss Nipper, importing that he wasn't going to do
so any more. The state that ensued on this, was, perhaps, his best; for
then, endeavouring to discharge all expression from his face, he would
sit staring round the room, with all these expressions conveyed into
it at once, and each wrestling with the other. Delighted admiration of
Florence and Walter always overthrew the rest, and remained victorious
and undisguised, unless Mr Toots made another rush into the air, and
then the Captain would sit, like a remorseful culprit, until he came
back again, occasionally calling upon himself, in a low reproachful
voice, to 'Stand by!' or growling some remonstrance to 'Ed'ard Cuttle,
my lad,' on the want of caution observabl in his behaviour.

One of Mr Toots's hardest trials, however, was of his own seeking.
On the approach of the Sunday which was to witness the last of those
askings in church of which the Captain had spoken, Mr Toots thus stated
his feelings to Susan N