st, that he had evidently prepared to throw his person on the vacant
divan, without explanation or apology, like one who took possession of his
own; though recollection returned just in time to prevent this breach of
decorum. Smiling, and repeating his bow, with a still deeper inclination,
he advanced with perfect self-possession to the table, where he expressed
his fears that Mrs Wyllys might deem his visit unseasonable or perhaps not
announced with sufficient ceremony. During this short introduction his
voice was bland as woman's, and his mien courteous, as though he actually
felt himself an intruder in the cabin of a vessel in which he was
literally a monarch.

"But, unseasonable as is the hour," he continued, "I should have gone to
my cott with a consciousness of not having discharged all the duties of an
attentive and considerate host, had I forgotten to reassure you of the
tranquillity of the ship, after the scene you have this day witnessed. I
have pleasure in saying, that the humour of my people is already expended,
and that lambs, in their nightly folds, are not more placid than they are
at this minute in their hammocks."

"The authority that so promptly quelled the disturbance is happily ever
present to protect us," returned the cautious governess; "we repose
entirely on your discretion and generosity."

"You have not misplaced your confidence. From the danger of mutiny, at
least, you are exempt."

"And from all others, I trust."

"This is a wild and fickle element we dwell on," he answered, while he
bowed an acknowledgment for the politeness, and took the seat to which the
other invited him by a motion of the hand; "but you know its character,
and need not be told that we seamen are seldom certain of any of our
movements I loosened the cords of discipline myself to-day," he added,
after a moment's pause, "and in some measure invited the broil that
followed: But it is passed, like the hurricane and the squall; and the
ocean is not now smoother than the tempers of my knaves."

"I have often witnessed these rude sports in vessels of the King; but I do
not remember to have known any more serious result than the settlement of
some ancient quarrel, or some odd freak of nautical humour, which has
commonly proved as harmless as it has been quaint."

"Ay; but the ship which often runs the hazards of the shoals gets wrecked
at last," muttered the Rover "I rarely give the quarter-deck up to the
people, without ke