"Love-tap, indeed," muttered Langley, rubbing his cheek. "See where your confounded ring scratched my face." "Did it? Oh! I'm so sorry!" said Mary. "Hold here, while I kiss the place to make it well; there now, don't it feel much better? See! I've got my lips all blood, haven't I? Shall I wipe it off with my handkerchief, or--" Langley took the hint and kissed the rich ripe lips of his lovely companion, red with nothing but her own warm blood. "By Jupiter!" cried my shipmate, "Mary, you are the strangest girl I ever saw. One minute I think you love me, the next that you care nothing at all for me; one minute the most teasing little devil, and the next the dearest creature in all the world." "What am I now?" asked Mary. "You are the most angelic, adorable--" "Take care, sir," cried Mary, shaking her finger; "don't have a relapse, or you'll catch it again." "Well, what shall I say then?" demanded poor Bill, in despair; "you are as hard to please as the skipper of a mud-scow." "Talk sensibly if you wish, but don't indulge in such lofty flights, unless you have a mind to soar out of hearing. Now, then, Will, what were you about to say?" "This," said my shipmate, taking the hand of his charming companion, and speaking like a frank, manly fellow, as he really was, "this, dear Mary, that I love you heartily and truly, and have loved you ever since we were children. At present I am a poor seaman, but I hope in a few years to rise in my profession, till I am able to support a wife in the style to which you have been accustomed, if then you will give me your hand I shall be more happy than I can express. Now, don't tease me any longer, but tell me if I have any chance." Mary's coquettish air was gone. While Langley had been speaking her face became suffused with a charming blush, which extended even to her heaving bosom, and when he finished she raised her eyes, bright and tearful, to his. "William," said she, "you have spoken candidly, without doubt, and deserve a candid answer. If when you become the mate of a ship you are willing to be burthened with me for a wife, dear Will, you can doubtless have me by asking papa." "Come, Ellen," said I, "let's go now." CHAPTER X. _The Gentile loses her fore-topsail._