rty, if I think
it fitting, to tell Mr. Potts the honorable mode in which your brother
has discharged the task of an introduction, its good faith, and
gentlemanlike feeling."

"Pray, let us have him at the mess first. Don't spoil our sport till we
have at least one evening out of him."

But she did not wait for him to finish his speech, and left the room.

It is but fair to own he took his reverses with great coolness; he
tightened his sword-belt, set his cap on his head before the glass,
stroked down his moustache, and then, lighting a cigar, swaggered off to
the door with the lounging swing of his order.

As for myself, I hastened back to the town, and with such speed that
I traversed the mile in something like thirteen minutes. I had no very
clear or collected plan of action, but I resolved to ask Captain Rogers
to be my friend, and see me through this conjuncture. He had just dined
as I entered the coffee-room, and consented to have his brandy-and-water
removed to my bedroom while I opened my business with him.

I will not, at this eleventh hour of revelations, inflict upon my reader
the details, but simply be satisfied to state that I found the skipper
far more practical than I looked for. He evidently, besides, had a taste
for these sort of adventures, and prided himself on his conduct of them.
"Go back now, and eat your dinner comfortably with your friends; leave
everything to me, and I promise you one thing,--the 'Cyclops' shall not
get full steam up till we have settled this small transaction."

CHAPTER XLVII. MY DUELLING AMBITION AGAIN DISAPPOINTED

Though I was a few minutes late for dinner, Miss Herbert did not chide
me for delay. She was charming in her reception of me; nor was the
fascination diminished to me by feeling with what generous warmth she
had defended and upheld me.

There is a marvellous charm in the being defended by one you love,
and of whose kind feeling towards you you had never dared to assure
yourself till the very moment that confirmed it. I don't know if I ever
felt in such spirits in my life. Not that I was gay or light-hearted so
much as happy,--happy in the sense of a self-esteem I had not known till
then. And what a spirit of cordial familiarity was there now between us!
She spoke to me of her daily life, its habits and even of its trials;
not complain-ingly nor fretfully,--far from it,--but in a way to imply
that these were the burdens meted out to all, and that none