The matter was becoming awkward, and young Morrison was upon the very eve of putting an end to it by a bold effort of resolution, when her father appeared again beyond the rails of the garden, and at the very same moment a loud voice was heard shouting, "Ship, ahoy! hollah, Captain Long! Captain Long! pigtail! Hie! bring-to, bring-to!" Captain Longly immediately halted in his advance, and turned to see who it was that thus hailed him; and Everard Morrison could see through the window a young man come up, dressed in a sailor's jacket and trousers, with a stick over his shoulder and a bundle on the hook of the stick, and certainly not giving more indications of being a gentleman by his dress than he had done by his salutation. But yet there was something in his manner and carriage, in his personal appearance altogether, we may say, which stamped upon him the mint mark of a higher station than that which he assumed; and Everard was not at all surprised when he heard Longly exclaim, "Why, master lieutenant, is that you? Who would suppose it in such a rig as that. Why, you look like a smart coxswain. Why, I haven't seen you, sir, since you got your rank. I hope it has sobered you." Let it be noted, that in all the speeches of Captain Long were interspersed sundry expletives of a high flavour, which we have not thought it fit to repeat, and shall leave to the imagination of our readers. "Ay, ay, captain," replied the lieutenant, "I have my own reasons for what I am about. I have been sobered enough by one thing or another, and what I want of you now is to know whether you will give me a bed and a dinner for a day or two." "That I will, that I will," replied Longly; "I'll give you that, and more too, if you want it, for old acquaintance' sake; but come in, and we'll see about it." "I sha'n't tire you out by staying too long," answered the other, and he followed Longly through the garden towards the house. Everard Morrison was mortified and disappointed in every way. He was vexed with himself for not having seized the opportunity of proposing to Hannah which had been afforded to him. He was disappointed at another person, and that person a stranger, being obtruded upon them, and he was sufficiently in love to be apprehensive without a cause. He was not one of those, however, who suffer the emotions of the heart to appear very much on the countenance, and, therefore, remained calmly till Longly brought in the stranger, whom the young lawyer examined carefully from head to foot, concluding that, notwithstanding the worst that envy could say to disparage him, he was a very handsome man indeed, of about thirty years of age. When all the little preliminaries had been settled, such as introducing Hannah Longly and Lieutenant Hargrave to each other, Everard Morrison put in his quiet word, saying, "I think, Mr. Longly, I shall go and get my horse and go home, for it is growing late, and I have some way to go, you know."