r not dine at all," said he, as he sprang
from the carriage, and, waving his hand in adieu, made his way to the
harbor. Taking the first boat that offered, Cashel rowed out to the
yacht, just in time to catch Lieutenant Sickleton, who, in full
yacht costume, was about to wait on his principal. He was a bluff,
good-natured, blunt fellow, who, having neither patronage nor interest
in the service, had left the wardroom for the easier, but less
ambitious, life of a yacht commander; a thoroughly good seaman, and
brave as a lion, he saw himself reduced to a position almost menial from
hard and galling necessity. He had twice been to Alexandria with touring
lords, who, while treating him well in all essentials, yet mingled so
much of condescension in their courtesy as to be all but unendurable. He
had gone to America with a young Oxford man, the son of a great London
brewer, whose overbearing insolence he had been obliged to repel by
a threat of personal consequences. He had taken an invalid family to
Madeira, and a ruined duke to Greece, and was now, with the yacht
and its company, transferred to Cashel's hands, not knowing--scarce
caring--with whom or where his future destinies were to be cast.

The Freemasonry of the sea has a stronger tie than the mere use of
technicals. Cashel was not ten minutes on board ere Sickleton and he
were like old acquaintances. The "Lucciola" was, in Skeleton's ideas,
the best thing that ever ran on a keel; there was nothing she could n't
do,--fair weather or foul. She could outsail a Yankee smack in a gale
off the coast of Labrador, or beat a felucca in the light winds off the
Gulf of Genoa. If these tidings were delightful to Cashel's ears,--the
most exciting and heart-stirring he had listened to for many a day,--the
gratification was no less to Sickleton that he was about to sail with
one who really loved the sea, and thoroughly understood and could value
the qualities of his noble craft.

From the vessel, they turned the conversation to all the possible places
the world's map afforded for a cruise. Sickleton's experiences were
chiefly Eastern,--he knew the Mediterranean as well as he did the Downs;
while Cashel's could vie with him in both coasts of the great Spanish
peninsula, and all the various channels of the West India islands.
For hours they sat discussing soundings, the trade winds, and
shore currents, with all the bearings of land points, bluffs, and
lighthouses. In talk, they visit