randmother and my
mother on that evening; my aunt and I were sent out to to take a walk,
that we might not overhear what passed, and when we returned we found
them still in close conversation.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

The Honourable Captain Delmar was now a frequent visitor to my mother,
and a good customer to the library. He did, however, generally contrive
that his visit should be paid late in the afternoon, just after the
marine officers had retired to dress for dinner; for he was a very
haughty personage, and did not think it proper for any officers of an
inferior grade to come "between the wind and his nobility."

I cannot say that I was partial to him; indeed, his pomposity, as I
considered it, was to me a source of ridicule and dislike. He took more
notice of me than he did of anybody else; but he appeared to consider
that his condescending patronage was all that was necessary; whereas,
had he occasionally given me a half-crown I should have cherished better
feelings towards him: not that I wanted money, for my mother supplied me
very liberally, considering my age: but although you may coax and
flatter a girl into loving you, you cannot a boy, who requires more
substantial proofs of your good-will.

There were a great many remarks not very flattering to my mother, made
behind her back, as to her former intimacy with Captain Delmar; for,
somehow or another, there always is somebody who knows something,
wherever doubts or surmises arise, and so it was in this case; but if
people indulged in ill-natured remarks when she was not there, they did
not in her presence; on the contrary, the friendship of so great a man
as the Honourable Captain Delmar appeared rather to make my mother a
person of more consequence.

She was continually pointing out to me the propriety of securing the
good will of this great personage, and the more she did so, the more I
felt inclined to do the reverse; indeed, I should have broke out into
open mutiny, if it had not been for Captain Bridgeman, who sided with my
mother, and when I went to him to propose playing another trick upon the
noble captain, not only refused to aid me, but told me, if I ever
thought of such a thing, he would never allow me to come to his rooms
again.

"Why, what good can he do to me?" inquired I.

"He may advance you properly in life--who knows?--he may put you on the
quarter-deck, and get you promoted in the service."

"What, make a middy of me?"

"Yes, an