tertaining such thoughts."

"That will turn out, as you manage matters, Milly. Mr. Thomas Wychecombe
does not think of you as a _wife_, quite likely, just at this moment;
but the largest whales are taken by means of very small lines, when the
last are properly handled. This young lieutenant would have you
to-morrow; though a more silly thing than for you two to marry, could
not well be hit upon. He is only a lieutenant; and though his name is so
good a one, it does not appear that he has any particular right to it."

"And yet, Dutton, you were only a lieutenant when _you_ married, and
your name was _nothing_ in the way of interest, or preferment," observed
the mother, anxious to interpose some new feeling between her daughter,
and the cruel inference left by the former part of her husband's speech.
"We _then_ thought all lay bright before us!"

"And so all would lie to this hour, Mrs. Dutton, but for that one silly
act of mine. A man with the charges of a family on him, little pay, and
no fortune, is driven to a thousand follies to hide his misery. You do
not strengthen your case by reminding me of _that_ imprudence. But,
Mildred, I do not tell you to cut adrift this young Virginian, for he
may he of use in more ways than one. In the first place, you can play
him off against Mr. Thomas Wychecombe; and, in the second place, a
lieutenant is likely, one day, to be a captain; and the wife of a
captain in His Majesty's navy, is no disreputable birth. I advise you,
girl, to use this youngster as a bait to catch the heir with; and,
failing a good bite, to take up with the lad himself."

This was said dogmatically, but with a coarseness of manner that fully
corresponded with the looseness of the principles, and the utter want of
delicacy of feeling that alone could prompt such advice. Mrs. Dutton
fairly groaned, as she listened to her husband, for never before had he
so completely thrown aside the thin mask of decency that he ordinarily
wore; but Mildred, unable to control the burst of wild emotion that came
over her, broke away from the place she occupied at her father's knee,
and, as if blindly seeking protection in any asylum that she fancied
safe, found herself sobbing, as if her heart would break, in Admiral
Bluewater's arms.

Dutton followed the ungovernable, impulsive movement, with his eye, and
for the first time he became aware in whose presence he had been
exposing his native baseness. Wine had not so far the mast