service as a commander was required; and in after years, when My Lady was wife to him in all but name, the lack of a conventional marriage-tie between them did not prevent that great heart from mingling the woman he loved best with the last prayers which ascended to his Creator. But when the moment came for the round shot to be tearing the decks, and sowing death, the Admiral would be on his quarter-deck all alert, but smiling like a boy playing a game in which he is the best player. It was that light-hearted boy's look he wore while he sat by My Lady that first night on which I saw them much together. And as for her, she had just that gracious look of the woman, who has been the unconquered Amazon all her life, when she has found the man for whom she will surrender. Not that My Lady had ever been the unconquered Amazon, but she had every womanly graciousness in her repertoire, and could use them with a generousness, which made them genuine, as the occasion demanded. And this was the finest and best of them. That My Lady was capable of a passionate devotion had been shown by her fidelity to Mr. Greville. The Admiral was exactly qualified to take her whole heart. To her imagination, her pride in her country, her pride of vanity, he appealed more highly than was possible for any other man living, and to her generous affectionate woman's heart, which must have been bruised by Mr. Greville's desertion and weary of Sir William's weakness, his chivalrousness, and the affectionate _esprit de corps_ which made every man who ever served with him his slave, came as a balm and a cordial. These two were all in all to each other that night. The Admiral, as I have said, alert and smiling, was rarely brilliant for him; My Lady, with beautiful eager face, and every now and then a sort of happy sob heaving in that exquisite white bosom, was hanging on his words. Though I said they were all in all, the Admiral had perforce to address himself to Her Majesty sufficiently, and from time to time to call out some toast or make some rally to his captains.