e bores I
was a dead shot. I 've heard you can do something that way?"

"A little," said he, dryly.

"Every gentleman ought; I've always maintained it; as poor old Bowes
used to say, 'With a strong head for port, and a steady hand for a
pistol, a man may go a long way in this world.' There, I think it's your
turn now at the pump. I've had all the talk to myself since I came in;
and the most you've done has been to grant out 'Indeed!' or 'Really!'"

"I have listened, Commodore,--listened most attentively. It has been my
great privilege to have heard your opinions on three most interesting
topics,--women, and wine, and the duel; and, I assure you, not
unprofitably."

"I 'm not blown, not a bit run off my wind, for all that, if I was n't
so dry; but my mouth is like a lime-burner's hat. Would you just touch
that bell and order a little sherry or Madeira? You don't seem to know
the ways of the house here; but every one does exactly as he pleases."

"I have a faint inkling of the practice," said Maitland, with a very
peculiar smile.

"What's the matter with you this evening? You 're not like yourself one
bit. No life, no animation about you. Ring again; pull it strong.
There, they'll hear that, I hope," cried he, as, impatient at Maitland's
indolence, he gave such a Jerk to the bell-rope that it came away from
the wire.

"I didn't exactly come in here for a gossip," said the Commodore, as he
resumed his seat. "I wanted to have a little serious talk with you, and
perhaps you are impatient that I haven't begun it, eh?"

"It would be unpardonable to feel impatience in such company," said'
Maitland, with a bow.

"Yes, yes; I know all that. That's what Yankees call soft sawder; but I
'm too old a bird, Master Maitland, to be caught with chaff, and I think
as clever a fellow as you are might suspect as much."

"You are very unjust to both of us if you imply that I have not a high
opinion of your acuteness."

"I don't want to be thought acute, sir; I am not a lawyer, nor a
lawyer's clerk,--I'm a sailor."

"And a very distinguished sailor."

"That's as it may be. They passed me over about the good-service
pension, and kept 'backing and filling' about that coast-guard
appointment till I lost temper and told them to give it to the devil,
for he had never been out of the Admiralty since I remembered it; and I
said, 'Gazette him at once, and don't let him say, You 're forgetting an
old friend and supporter.'"

"Did yo