out the
dictates of your honour, but now, let me entreat you not to meet this
dreadful man, if man he can be called, when you know not how unfair the
contest may be."

"Unfair?"

"Yes. May he not have some means of preventing you from injuring him,
and of overcoming you, which no mortal possesses?"

"He may."

"Then the supposition of such a case ought to be sufficient ground for
at once inducing you to abandon all idea of meeting with him."

"My dear, I'll consider of this matter."

"Do so."

"There is another thing, however, which now you will permit me to ask of
you as a favour."

"It is granted ere it is spoken."

"Very good. Now you must not be offended with what I am going to say,
because, however it may touch that very proper pride which you, and such
as you, are always sure to possess, you are fortunately at all times
able to call sufficient judgment to your aid to enable you to see what
is really offensive and what is not."

"You alarm me by such a preface."

"Do I? then here goes at once. Your brother Henry, poor fellow, has
enough to do, has he not, to make all ends meet."

A flush of excitement came over Flora's cheek as the old admiral thus
bluntly broached a subject of which she already knew the bitterness to
such a spirit as her brother's.

"You are silent," continued the old man; "by that I guess I am not wrong
in my I supposition; indeed it is hardly a supposition at all, for
Master Charles told me as much, and no doubt he had it from a correct
quarter."

"I cannot deny it, sir."

"Then don't. It ain't worth denying, my dear. Poverty is no crime, but,
like being born a Frenchman, it's a d----d misfortune."

Flora could scarcely refuse a smile, as the nationality of the old
admiral peeped out even in the midst of his most liberal and best
feelings.

"Well," he continued, "I don't intend that he shall have so much trouble
as he has had. The enemies of his king and his country shall free him
from his embarrassments."

"The enemies?"

"Yes; who else?"

"You speak in riddles, sir."

"Do I? Then I'll soon make the riddles plain. When I went to sea I was
worth nothing--as poor as a ship's cat after the crew had been paid off
for a month. Well, I began fighting away as hard and fast as I could,
and the more I fought, and the more hard knocks I gave and took, the
more money I got."

"Indeed."

"Yes; prize after prize we hauled into port, and at last the French
vessels wouldn't