ss. Jack and Adair still
thought Stella very charming, but, observing Alick's devotion to her,
they would have considered it a gross breach of friendship to attempt
cutting him out. She had other admirers, but she certainly gave them no
encouragement. The midshipmen of the frigate thought their captain
spoony, and the captain's clerk of the _Tudor_ was guilty of a most
reprehensible breach of confidence, if he spoke the truth, in whispering
that he had one day discovered on the commander's desk a sonnet
addressed to Stella's eyebrow. The fact, however, was doubted, as
Captain Babbicome had never been suspected of possessing the slightest
poetical talent, nor had a book of poetry ever been seen in his cabin.

"Still," insisted the clerk, "love can work wonders. It must have been
poetry, for the lines all began with capitals, and were written in the
middle of the page."

At length the ball took place. The Antiguan young ladies were full of
life and spirit, and danced to perfection, never getting tired, so that
the officers had no lack of partners, and voted it great fun. There
were many very pretty girls among them, and several with much more of
the rose on their cheeks than usually falls to the share of West Indian
damsels. Some censorious critic even ventured to hint that it was added
by the hand of art. That this was false was evident, for the weather
was so hot that had rouge been used it would have inevitably been
detected; but the island damsels trusted to their good figures and
features, and their lively manners and conversation, rather than to any
meretricious charms, to win admiration. Stella was generally considered
the most charming of the maidens present, as undoubtedly she was the
most blooming, and she seemed to enjoy the ball as much as any one. She
danced with Captain Hemming, and went through a quadrille with Commander
Babbicome. He then entreated her to perform a valse with him. Laughing
heartily, she advised him not to make the attempt. Even the quiet dance
had reduced him to a melting mood.

"Why, you have valsed twice with my second lieutenant," he remarked, his
choler rising.

Stella gave him a look which might have shown him that he had better
have held his tongue. The ball, which began at a primitively early
hour, had been going on for some time, when a fierce blast which shook
the building to its very foundations swept over it.

"A hurricane has burst on the island," was the ge