'I was listening greedily halfway up the stairs, down which I was coming at the moment of arrest, dressed for a visit. My father answered, "I am not going to have for a son-in-law a man who may end his career at the gibbet within the next month." "Chaw! you dined with him. He was an honourable gentleman then." My father began to bluster. Here stupid Mrs. Dove came creaking downstairs, and called to me to go into the hall and turn that she might admire me. 'All the same I managed to catch a fragment of Captain Burgoyne's remark. "He is good-looking. He is qualified to command a ship. He can handle a ship when he pleases." "No," thundered the commander--and as I passed through the hall door, after giving Mrs. Dove a nod--"Are you," shouted my father, "going to be satisfied with his cool statement of that large loss of money?" 'I could not linger, as Mrs. Dove was watching me with affectionate interest from the staircase, and so I left the house. Nothing that my father can say can affect my love. I am dying to be your wife, and you will find me ready at the first signal you hoist. Wherever you are I am, in spirit and devotion.' She concluded in terms of fervent affection. The captain kissed the letter, and read it twice, and whilst he was putting it in his pocket with the care of a document worth thousands, he was hailed from the quay alongside. 'How d'ye, Jackman?' He looked over and saw a middle-aged man dressed in the pilot cloth of the master's wear. 'How are you, Phillips?' 'Any good news for me in that letter you've just now pocketed?' Jackman made no reply. 'Got a ship yet?' The other flourished his hand over his brig. 'Ah, but that's the monkey eating his own tail.' After a pause--'Has any further news,' cried the captain on the quay, 'been heard of the money you were robbed of?' 'It's long ago washed down fifteen hundred throats, and purchased enjoyment of fifteen hundred hideous revelries,' answered Jackman, nodding and smiling; and saying this, he passed forward, and the captain ashore walked on, with a single turn of his head to gaze at the ship, as if considering Jackman's business in fitting her out and how much the job cost.