ng hand fastened to the wine-cup? What would Lilian Ashford say?
Dare you drink the health of Emmie Guilford in such a place as this? You
should have smote the lips that mentioned her name in such a presence!"

He drew back his hand from the glass. His muscles tightened up, as they
had on the bloody field of Williamsburg. Tom Somers was himself again.

"Come, Somers, you don't drink," added the captain sarcastically.

"No, I thank you; I never drink," he answered resolutely, as he cast a
steady glance of pity and contempt at the bloated crew who had been
reveling in his embarrassment.

"You won't refuse now?"

"Most decidedly."

"Lieutenant Somers, I took you for a young man of pluck. I'm
disappointed. You will pardon me, my dear fellow; but I can't help
regarding your conduct as rather shabby."

"I never drink, as I have said before, and I do not intend to begin now.
If I have been shabby, I hope you will excuse me."

"Certainly I will excuse you, when you atone for your folly, and drink
with me."

The spectators laughed, and evidently thought the captain had made a
point.

"Then I can never atone for my folly, as you call it," replied Somers,
his courage increasing as the trial demanded it.

"What would Lord Raglan have said if I had refused to drink his Sicily
Madeira?"

"Very likely he would have said just what you said; but there would have
been no more sense in it then than now."

"Bully for young 'un!" said a seedy dandy, whose love of fancy drinks had
made a compromise with his love of dress.

"I will leave it to these gentlemen to decide whether I have not spoken
reason and good sense."

"I will leave you and these _gentlemen_ to settle that question to suit
yourselves, and I will bid you good-evening," said Somers, rising from
his chair.

The unpleasant emphasis which he placed upon the word "gentlemen" created
a decided sensation among the group of idlers; and, as he stepped from
behind the table, he was confronted by a young man with bloodshot eyes
and bloated cheeks, but dressed in the extreme of fashion.

"Sir, you wear the colors of the United States Army," said the juvenile
tippler; "but you can't be permitted to insult a gentleman with
impunity."

Lieutenant Somers wanted to laugh in the face of this specimen of
bar-room chivalry, for he forcibly reminded him of a belligerent little
bantam-rooster that paraded the barnyard of his mother's cottage at
Pinchbrook; but he was prudent