he payment of debts incurred in my recent
adventures. Who could help being grateful for it? And yet his remorseless
spilling of the kindly wine full of mellow recollections of my father and
the little princess, drove the sense of gratitude out of me.

CHAPTER XX

NEWS OF A FRESH CONQUEST OF MY FATHER'S

Temple went to sea. The wonder is that I did not go with him: we were
both in agreement that adventures were the only things worth living for,
and we despised English fellows who had seen no place but England. I
could not bear the long separation from my father that was my reason for
not insisting on the squire's consent to my becoming a midshipman. After
passing a brilliant examination, Temple had the good fortune to join
Captain Bulsted's ship, and there my honest-hearted friend dismally
composed his letter of confession, letting me know that he had been
untrue to friendship, and had proposed to Janet Ilchester, and
interchanged vows with her. He begged my forgiveness, but he did love her
so!--he hoped I would not mind. I sent him a reproachful answer; I never
cared for him more warmly than when I saw the letter shoot the slope of
the postoffice mouth. Aunt Dorothy undertook to communicate assurances of
my undying affection for him. As for Janet--Temple's letter, in which he
spoke of her avowed preference for Oriental presents, and declared his
intention of accumulating them on his voyages, was a harpoon in her side.
By means of it I worried and terrified her until she was glad to have it
all out before the squire. What did he do? He said that Margery, her
mother, was niggardly; a girl wanted presents, and I did not act up to my
duty; I ought to buy Turkey and Tunis to please her, if she had a mind
for them.

The further she was flattered the faster she cried; she had the face of
an old setter with these hideous tears. The squire promised her fifty
pounds per annum in quarterly payments, that she might buy what presents
she liked, and so tie herself to constancy. He said aside to me, as if he
had a knowledge of the sex--'Young ladies must have lots of knickknacks,
or their eyes 'll be caught right and left, remember that.' I should have
been delighted to see her caught. She talked of love in a ludicrous
second-hand way, sending me into fits of disgusted laughter. On other
occasions her lips were not hypocritical, and her figure anything but
awkward. She was a bold, plump girl, fond of male society. Heriot
enr