p noticing how regularly we seemed
to separate into two parties; the skipper invariably pairing off with
Florrie, and leaving Amy to my care and pilotage.

At length a letter came from Mr Flinn to say that the ship was all
ataunto, and would in another eight-and-forty hours be quite ready for
sea. It arrived while we were at breakfast; and as he announced its
contents and intimated that we must both be off forthwith, I saw my
sister Florence go pale to the lips for a moment and then flush up as
though the blood would burst through her delicate skin. The news threw
a complete damper upon the previously merry party, and the meal was
finished in almost perfect silence. At length my father returned thanks
and rose to retire to his study. As he did so Captain Annesley also
rose and said something to him in a low tone, which seemed to me to be a
request for a few moments' private conversation. My father bowed, and
led the way to the library, with the skipper following close in his
wake.

They were closeted together nearly an hour, and when the man-o'-war
rejoined us, the first thing he did was to carry Florrie off to the
conservatory. My mother was, as usual, at that hour, busy in her own
snuggery with the cook, so that Amy and I found ourselves left alone in
the drawing-room, Sir Peregrine having retired to the terrace for his
morning smoke. I began by this time to see pretty clearly what was in
the wind; so when Amy proposed that I should accompany her as far as old
Mrs Jones' cottage, I assented with effusion. We returned just in time
to sit down to luncheon; and when we took our places at table, Florrie's
look of mingled joy and sadness, the sparkling diamond upon her engaged
finger, and the elated look upon my skipper's handsome face told me all
that I had before only shrewdly suspected.

Immediately after luncheon, the carriage was brought round, our traps
tumbled on board, and the skipper and I started for Portsmouth, after a
most affecting leave-taking all round. Poor Florrie bore up bravely
until the very last moment, when, as Annesley took her hand and bent
over her to say good-bye, her fortitude completely deserted her, and,
flinging herself into his arms, she sobbed as if her heart would break.
I felt a lump rise in my own throat as I sat an unwilling witness to her
distress; while as for Annesley--but avast! we are bound on a quest for
honour and glory, so stow away the tear-bottles, coil down all tend