plan to send Cherbourg and its breakwater sky-high, at
twenty-four hours' warning."

"An enthusiast,--a visionary, I have no doubt," said I, contemptuously.

"Well, I think you might be more merciful in your judgment of a man of
your own stamp," retorted he, laughing. "At all events, it would be as
good as a play to see you together. If you should chance to be at Malta,
or Marseilles, when the _Clarence_ touches there, just ask for Captain
Rogers; tell him you know me, that will be enough."

"Why not give me a line of introduction to him?" said I, with an easy
indifference. "These things serve to clear away the awkwardness of a
self-presentation."

"I don't care if I do," said he, taking a sheet of paper, and beginning
'Dear Bob,'--after which he paused and deliberated, muttering the words
'Dear Bob' three or four times over below his breath.

"'Dear Bob,'" said I aloud, in the tone of one dictating to an
amanuensis,--"'This brief note will be handed to you by a very valued
friend of mine, Algernon Sydney Potts, a man so completely after
your own heart that I feel a downright satisfaction in bringing you
together.'"

"Well, that ain't so bad," said he, as he uttered the last words which
fell from his pen--"'in bringing you together.'"

"Go on," said I dictatorially, and continued: "'Thrown by a mere
accident myself into his society, I was so struck by his attainments,
the originality of his views, and the wide extent of his knowledge of
life----' Have you _that_ down?"

"No," said he, in some confusion; "I am only at 'entertainments.'"

"I said 'attainments,' sir," said I rebukingly, and then repeating the
passage word for word, till he had written it--"'that I conceived for
him a regard and an esteem rarely accorded to others than our oldest
friends.' One word more: 'Potts, from certain circumstances, which
I cannot here enter upon, may appear to you in some temporary
inconvenience as regards money----'"

Here the captain stopped, and gave me a most significant look: it was at
once an appreciation and an expression of drollery.

"Go on," said I dryly. "'If so,'" resumed I, "'be guardedly cautious
neither to notice his embarrassment nor allude to it; above all, take
especial care that you make no offer to remove the inconvenience, for he
is one of those whose sensibilities are so fine, and whose sentiments sa
fastidious, that he could never recover, in his own esteem, the dignity
compromised by such an inci