t danger, of course your resolve is
a very prudent one; but for myself, I admit that I see no danger, and I
don't feel any particular weakness of will in regard to temptation."

"Ah, Shank, you remind me of an eccentric old lady I have heard of who
was talking with a friend about the difficulties of life. `My dear,'
said the friend, `I do find it such a _difficult_ thing to resist
temptation--don't you?' `No,' replied the eccentric old lady, `I don't,
for I _never_ resist temptation, I always give way to it!'"

"I can't quite make out how your anecdote applies to me, Charlie."

"Don't you see? You feel no weakness of will in regard to temptation
because you never give your will an opportunity of resisting it. You
always give way to it. You see, I am speaking out my mind freely--as
you have advised!"

"Yes, and you take the whole of my advice, and fear nothing, else you
would not risk a quarrel by doing so. But really, my boy, it's of no
use your troubling your head on that subject, for I feel quite safe, and
I don't mean to give in, so there's an end on't."

Our hero persevered notwithstanding, and for some time longer sought to
convince or move his friend both by earnest appeal and light pleasantry,
but to all appearance without success, although he reduced him to
silence. He left him at last, and went home meditating on the truth of
the proverb that "a man convinced against his will is of the same
opinion still."

CHAPTER FIVE.

ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN.

Under the influence of favouring breezes and bright skies the _Walrus_
swept gaily over the ocean at the beginning of her voyage, with
"stuns'ls slow and aloft, royals and sky-scrapers," according to Captain
Stride. At least, if these were not the exact words he used, they
express pretty well what he meant, namely, a "cloud of canvas."

But this felicitous state of things did not last. The tropics were
reached, where calms prevailed with roasting heat. The Southern
Atlantic was gained, and gales were met with. The celebrated Cape was
doubled, and the gales, if we may say so, were trebled. The Indian
Ocean was crossed, and the China Seas were entered, where typhoons blew
some of the sails to ribbons, and snapped off the topmasts like
pipe-stems. Then she sailed into the great Pacific, and for a time the
_Walrus_ sported pleasantly among the coral islands.

During all this time, and amid all these changes, Charlie Brooke, true
to his character