because he hasn't a rent-roll and cannot show a
pedigree as many do a yard long, and without a word of truth from
beginning to end. If a man is noble in himself what does it matter who
his father was? The best pedigree, in my opinion, is that which a man's
grandson will have to show. Better to have one noble fellow like old
Ripley there for a father, than a line of twenty indifferent
progenitors, such as nine-tenths of those who set such store by their
ancestry can boast of."

Alice very naturally agreed with the admiral, who was himself a man of
much older family than her father. He attacked the general the next
morning. He hated circumlocution and went directly to the point. "You
object to your daughter marrying Sir Pearce Ripley because his father
was a boatswain. I tell you I was for many years of inferior rank to a
boatswain. I entered the navy as captain's servant. What do you say to
that? It does not signify what a man has been, it is what he is should
be considered. Now, my dear general, just clap all such nonsense under
hatches, and the next time young Ripley asks your daughter to marry him,
let her, and be thankful that you have secured so fine a son-in-law and
so excellent a husband for the girl."

General Verner had not a word of reply to his friend's remonstrance.
The admiral, when he met Alice, exclaimed, "I've been pouring my
broadsides into your father till I left him without a stick standing and
every gun dismounted; if you give him a shot depend on't he'll strike
his flag."

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER SEVEN.

The admiral's house commanded an extensive view of the Solent, looking
across to Portsmouth, down the channel towards Cowes and up over
Spithead. One bright morning after breakfast, the admiral, as usual,
with his eye at the telescope, was watching the ever-varying scene on
the waters before him, when he exclaimed, "Two frigates standing in, and
one is French, a prize to the other. To my eye the Frenchman seems the
biggest of the two; I must send over and learn all about it." He rang
the bell, his old coxswain appeared. "Judson, take the wherry and board
that frigate, and give my compliments and learn the particulars of the
action, and if her captain can spare time I shall be very glad to see
him. Here, give this note if--" The admiral spoke a few words in an
undertone heard by no one else.

Judson hurried off. There was a fair breeze to Spithead, and back--a
soldier's wind.