before any thing can be done,"
replied the owner, pointing to the captain of the steamer. "Mr. Percy,
this is Captain Breaker, the commander of the steamer."

"And this," added Captain Breaker, pointing at the owner, "is Captain
Passford, who is the fortunate owner of this vessel, though she is soon
to pass into other hands."

"Captain Passford!" exclaimed Percy, bowing to both gentlemen as he
was presented to them. "That is a familiar name to me; and upon my word,
I thought it was Colonel Passford of Glenfield when I first looked at
him."

"He is my brother; but I never heard him called 'colonel' before," added
the owner, laughing at the odd-sounding title, as it was to him.

"Colonel Homer Passford is the name by which he is often called near his
residence," Percy explained. "He is the nearest neighbor of my father,
Colonel Richard Pierson."

"Indeed! then you probably know my brother," said Captain Passford,
interested in spite of himself.

"As well as I know any gentleman in the State of Alabama," replied
Percy. "By the great palmetto! you are Colonel Passford's brother; and
I think you must know Miss Florence Passford, who has been staying all
winter with her uncle."

"She is my daughter," replied the owner with some emotion, which he
could not wholly conceal when he thought of his mission in the South.

"I have met her several times, though not often, for I have been away
from home at school. But my brother, Major Lindley Pierson, I learn from
my letters, is a frequent visitor at your brother's house: and they even
say"--

But Percy did not repeat what they said, though he had gone far enough
to give the father of Florry something like a shock.

"What were you about to say, Mr. Percy?" he asked.

"I think I had better not say it, for it may have been a mere idle
rumor," answered Percy, who was now beginning to disclose some of his
better traits of character.

"Does it relate to my daughter, sir?" asked the captain rather sternly;
for, in the present condition of the country, he was more than
ordinarily anxious about his daughter.

"I ought not to have said any thing, sir; but what I was about to say,
but did not say, does relate to Miss Florence," replied Percy, not a
little embarrassed by the situation. "But I assure you, sir, that it was
nothing that reflects in the slightest degree upon her. As I have said
so much, I may as well say the rest of it, or you will think more than
was intended was