“Ha, my lord!” said the Duke; “you are welcome. Be seated, sir, be seated. I shall be disengaged in one moment. Stone, oblige me by removing your hat from that chair, that my lord of Arran may come to anchor.” The bulky sea-captain, with a most offensive affectation of alacrity, skipped to obey. He swept the chair with his hat; more, he produced from somewhere an enormous blue handkerchief like a small ensign, and elaborately polished the seat with it. “Now,” says he, “if your lordship’s breeches will deign to reconsecrate the altar my top-gear hath profaned.” The Duke, his elbow leaned on the table, shaded his face with his palm, and laughed noiselessly. As for the sweet puppy himself, self-esteem had thickened his moral cuticle beyond penetration by anything less than a pickaxe of ridicule. He closed his lids, and, with an ineffable smile and wave of the hand, dropped languidly into the proffered place. Duke and Captain continued for a while their investigation of the chart. Then the former put it away, and, leaning back in his chair, addressed a question to the latter. “What is this I hear, Captain, of decent folk impressed illegally in the City by order of my Lord Mayor?” The burly seaman shrugged his shoulders. “He’s an ass, sir, that Bludworth, yet an ass in some sort deserving commendation.” “In what way?” “Why, in the way that leads by short-cuts to disputed ends. He gets there, while your wise man talks.” “Aye, but he tramples rights to do it.” “He may. We must have men.” “They were given no press money, I understand.” “He had none to give them. Still, we must have men.” “The thing should be in order. There were those among them, I hear, of quite respectable estate.” “Aye, but we must have men, I say. Your fool, on occasion, can have his uses.” The Duke, as if involuntarily, shot a swift glance towards the seated figure. “Could they, under the circumstances,” he said, “be broke for desertion?” “I leave that,” answered the seaman dryly, “to your Highness.” “’Tis not the way, at least, to make the King’s service popular.” “Well, I could venture a better way.” He meant, of course, the settlement of long arrears of pay--a chronic scandal in the Navy. But the obvious was not palatable. The Duke, just raising his eyebrows at the speaker, bent them in a frown, and sat drumming for some moments with his fingers on the table. Suddenly he turned to Arran. “What would _you_ suggest, my lord,” said he, “to make the Navy popular? The lay opinion, given an intelligence such as yours, is often valuable in these matters.” His lordship, exquisitely flattered, sat up. “I should offer a handthome bounty, Thir,” said he--with perhaps some vivid recollection of personal sufferings endured in the Channel--“to the man who should devith or invent a thertain cure for thea-thickneth.” Captain Stone, regardless of his company, burst into a roar of laughter.