he condition of affairs very
calmly, until he remembered that the day was Sunday, when no Briton has
any call to be disturbed by any but sacred insistency. At any rate, he
was under orders now, and those orders were entirely to his liking. So
he freshened up his cheerful and simple-minded face, put his sailor-knot
neckcloth askew, as usual, and with some trepidation went down to
dinner.

The young ladies would not have been young women if they had not
received him warmly. Kind Faith, who loved him as a sister might--for
she had long discovered his good qualities--had tears in her beautiful
eyes, as she gave him both hands, and smiled sweetly at his bashfulness.
And even the critical Dolly, who looked so sharply at the outside
of everything, allowed her fair hand to stay well in his, and said
something which was melody to him. Then Johnny, who was of a warlike
cast, and hoped soon to destroy the French nation, shook hands with this
public benefactor already employed in that great work.

"I shall scarcely have time for a bit of dinner," said Admiral Darling,
as they sat down. "I have sent word to have the Protector launched, and
to give little Billy a feed of corn. All you young people may take your
leisure. Youth is the time that commands time and space. But for my
part, if I can only manage this plate of soup, and a slice of that fish,
and then one help of mutton, and just an apple-fritter, or some trifle
of that sort, I shall be quite as lucky as I can hope to be. Duty
perpetually spoils my dinner, and I must get some clever fellow to
invent a plate that will keep as hot as duty is in these volcanic times.
But I never complain; I am so used to it. Eat your dinners, children,
and don't think of mine."

Having scarcely afforded himself an hour, the Admiral, in full uniform,
embarked upon little Billy, a gentle-minded pony from the west country,
who conducted his own digestion while he consulted that of his rider. At
the haven they found the Protector ready, a ten-oared galley manned by
Captain Stubbard's men, good samples of Sea-Fencibles. And the Captain
himself was there, to take the tiller, and do any fighting if the chance
should arise, for he had been disappointed all the morning. The boat
which brought Scudamore had been recalled by signal from the Leda, and
that active young officer having sought her vainly, and thereby missed
the Protector, followed steadily in Mr. Prater's boat, with the nephew,
Jem, pulling