"Yes," said he; "the service has come to a pretty pass, when the youngest officer of my ship asks me to explain my orders, instead of obeying them." "I had better give him a note to the commanding officer, for I may not happen to be on board when he arrives." A note was written, and given me. "Good-night, Mr Rattlin," said the captain. "Good-night, sir," said I, advancing very amiably to shake hands with my little commander. My action took him more aback than a heavy squall would have done the beautiful frigate he commanded. The prestige of rank, and the pride of discipline struggled with his sense of the common courtesies of life. He half held out his hand; he withdrew it--it was again proffered and again withdrawn! He really looked confused. At length, as if he had rallied up all his energies to act courageously, he thrust them resolutely into his pockets; and then said, "There, younker, that will do. Go and turn in." "Turned out," I muttered, as I left the room. From this brief incident, young as I was, I augured badly of Captain Reud. I at once felt that I had broken some rule of etiquette, but I knew that he had sinned against the dictates of mere humanity. There was a littleness in his conduct, and an indecision in his manner, quite at variance with my untutored notions of the gallant bearing of a British sailor. As I lay in bed at my inn, my mind re-enacted all the scenes of the previous day. I was certainly dissatisfied with every occurrence. I was dissatisfied with the security of my friend Josiah Cheeks, the Major-General of the Horse-Marines, of his Majesty's ship the _Merry Dun_ of Dover. I was dissatisfied with my reception by Captain Reud, of his Majesty's ship _Eos_, notwithstanding his skill at spinning upon a bottle; nor was I altogether satisfied with the blustering, half-protecting, half-overbearing conduct towards me, of his first-lieutenant, Mr Farmer. But all these dissatisfactions united were as nothing to the disgust I felt at the broad innuendoes so liberally flung out concerning the mystery of my birth. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. RALPH'S HEART STILL AT HOME--HIS COFFEE-ROOM FRIEND ALL ABROAD--GETS HIS IOU CASHED, AND SEES THE GIVER EXALTED TO EVERYBODY'S SATISFACTION BUT HIS OWN.