Mr. Dodge thought all this extraordinary, for he had witnessed Captain Truck's introduction, and did not understand how people who had sailed twenty-four hours in the same ship, and had been fairly introduced, should not be intimate. As for himself, he fancied he was, what he termed, "well acquainted" with the Effinghams, from having talked of them a great deal ignorantly, and not a little maliciously; a liberty he felt himself fully entitled to take from the circumstance of residing in the same county, although he had never spoken to one of the family, until accident placed him in their company on board the same vessel. "Sir George is a gentleman of great accomplishments, Miss Effingham, I assure you; a man of unqualified merit. We have the same state-room, for I like company, and prefer chatting a little in my berth to being always asleep. He is a baronet, I suppose you know,--not that I care anything for titles, all men being equal in truth, though--though----" "--Unequal in reality, sir, you probably meant to add," observed John Effingham, who was lolling on Eve's work-stand, his eagle-shaped face fairly curling with the contempt he felt, and which he hardly cared to conceal. "Surely not, sir!" exclaimed the terrified Steadfast, looking furtively about, lest some active enemy might be at hand to quote this unhappy remark to his prejudice. "Surely not! men are every way equal, and no one can pretend to be better than another. No, no,--it is nothing to me that Sir George is a baronet; though one would prefer having a gentleman in the same state-room to having a coarse fellow. Sir George thinks, sir, that the ship is running into great danger by steering for the land in so dark a night, and in such _dirty_ weather. He _has_ many out-of-the-way expressions, Sir George, I must admit, for one of his rank; he calls the weather _dirty_, and the proceedings _uncomfortable_; modes of expression, gentlemen, to which I give an unqualified disapprobation." "Probably Sir George would attach more importance to a _qualified_ disapprobation," retorted John Effingham. "Quite likely," returned Mr. Dodge innocently, though the two other visiters, Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville, permitted slight muscular movements about the lips to be seen: "Sir George is quite an original in his way. We have few originals in our part of the country, you know, Mr. John Effingham; for to say the truth, it is rather unpopular to differ from the neighbourhood, in this or any other respect. Yes, sir, the people will rule, and ought to rule. Still, I think Sir George may get along well enough as a stranger, for it is not quite as unpopular in a stranger to be original, as in a native. I think you will agree with me, sir, in believing it excessively presuming in an American to pretend to be different from his fellow-citizens." "No one, sir, could entertain such presumption, I am persuaded, in your case."