id. "We, who are so much shut up
in our ships, have a poverty of ideas on most subjects; and as to always
talking of the winds and waves, that would fatigue even a poet."

"As a sailor's daughter, I honour my father's calling, sir; and as an
English girl, I venerate the brave defenders of the island. Nor do I
know that seamen have less to say, than other men."

"I am glad to hear you confess this, for--shall I be frank with you, and
take a liberty that would better become a friend of a dozen years, than
an acquaintance of a day;--and, yet, I know not why it is so, my dear
child, but I feel as if I had long known you, though I am certain we
never met before."

"Perhaps, sir, it is an omen that we are long to know each other, in
future," said Mildred, with the winning confidence of unsuspecting and
innocent girlhood. "I hope you will use no reserve."

"Well, then, at the risk of making a sad blunder, I will just say, that
'my nephew Tom' is any thing but a prepossessing youth; and that I hope
all eyes regard him exactly as he appears to a sailor of fifty-five."

"I cannot answer for more than those of a girl of nineteen, Admiral
Bluewater," said Mildred, laughing; "but, for her, I think I may say
that she does not look on him as either an Adonis, or a Crichton."

"Upon my soul! I am right glad to hear this, for the fellow has
accidental advantages enough to render him formidable. He is the heir to
the baronetcy, and this estate, I believe?"

"I presume he is. Sir Wycherly has no other nephew--or at least this is
the eldest of three brothers, I am told--and, being childless himself,
it _must_ be so. My father tells me Sir Wycherly speaks of Mr. Thomas
Wychecombe as his future heir."

"Your father!--Ay, fathers look on these matters with eyes very
different from their daughters!"

"There is one thing about seamen that renders them at least safe
acquaintances," said Mildred, smiling; "I mean their frankness."

"That is a failing of mine, as I have heard. But you will pardon an
indiscretion that arises in the interest I feel in yourself. The eldest
of three brothers--is the lieutenant, then, a younger son?"

"_He_ does not belong to the family at all, I believe," Mildred
answered, colouring slightly, in spite of a resolute determination to
appear unconcerned. "Mr. Wycherly Wychecombe is no relative of our host,
I hear; though he bears both of his names. He is from the colonies; born
in Virginia."

"_He_ is a nob