"Lyndis was rather fluttered, Dick, and so I kissed her--by
mistake--just under the admiral's window."
* * * * *
"Good luck to you and your ship, captain!" said Roscoria, with that air
of ill-sustained buoyancy which we all adopt during the _mauvais quart
d'heure_ of parting.
"Good-bye, Corydon," said Dick, and wrung his friend's hand. "Be off,
or you'll miss the coach."
Lyndis and Roscoria walked away together up the steep path to the high
road; Rodda had made himself scarce, and Tregurtha stood alone.
There is an advantage here and there, when your friend marries and you
don't. He keeps a more luxurious table as a rule, and you are sure of
a match-box and hot-water in your bedroom when you visit him. On the
other hand, there is something eternally gone; the old frank confidence
_a deux_ grows yearly more difficult, and, you can never more be "boys
together."
On that day a week later Captain Tregurtha was off again to sea, in
command, in a measure through the admiral's interest, of a fine ship,
the Damietta.
Rosetta, who did not see the captain again before he went, has taken
first-class honors in the Junior Cambridge Exam. of the year (logic
being specially commended), and she has now entered upon an engrossing
project in conjunction with the admiral for the importation of some
"Hereford" white-face cattle on to the Braceton farm.
Admiral Sir John Villiers bides his time. When Roscoria comes home to
cane his boys he will live to find a rod in pickle for himself. But
little recks the lover of the future thunders, for he is living under a
cloudless sky. Unlike most folk of the present day, Lyndis and Roscoria
have rushed headlong into matrimony; and if consequences _will_ fall
heavy--why, let them! they say, as they blissfully, economically, and
appropriately roam amongst the myrtles in the Scilly Isles.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
A table of contents has been added.
Some inconsistent punctuation was retained (e.g. eyeglass vs.
eye-glass).
Changed oe-ligatures were changed to "oe."
Page 145, changed ? to . after "opposite bank."
Page 166, restored several missing commas to "a torrent, a storm,
hurricane, gust, squall, half-gale." These were present in the original
but lost in the reprint.
Page 173, changed "into the boot" to "into the boat."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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