“Take an illustration from something you know better, Nelly, for I 'd do nothing of the kind; but if I saw what, in the conduct or even in the manner of the girl I was in love with, I would n't stand if she were my wife, it will be hard to convince me that I oughtn't to tell her of it.” “As I said before, Jack, the telling is a matter of time and opportunity. Of all the jealousies in the world there is none as inconsiderate as that of lovers towards the outer world. Whatever change either may wish for in the other must never come suggested from without.” “And did n't I tell her she was wrong in supposing that it was Marion made me see her coquetry?” “That you thought Marion had no influence over your Judgment she might believe readily enough, but girls have a keener insight into each other than you are aware of, and she was annoyed--and she was right to be annoyed--that in your estimate of her there should enter anything, the very smallest, that could bespeak the sort of impression a woman might have conveyed.” “Nelly, all this is too deep for me. If Julia cared for me as I believe she had, she 'd have taken what I said in good part. Did n't I give up smoking of a morning, except one solitary cheroot after breakfast, when she asked me? Who ever saw me take a nip of brandy of a forenoon since that day she cried out, 'Shame, Jack, don't do that'? And do you think I was n't as fond of my weed and my glass of schnapps as ever she was of all those little airs and graces she puts on to make fools of men?” “Carriage waiting, sir,” said a servant, entering with a mass of cloaks and rugs on his arm. “Confound the carriage and the journey too,” muttered he, below his breath. “Look here, Nelly; if you are right, and I hope with all my heart you are, I 'll not go.” “That would be ruin, Jack; you must go.” “What do I care for the service? A good seaman--a fellow that knows how to handle a ship--need never want for employment. I 'd just as soon be a skipper as wear a pair of swabs on my shoulders and be sworn at by some crusty old rear-admiral for a stain on my quarter-deck. I'll not go, Nelly; tell Ned to take off the trunks; I'll stay where I am.” “Oh, Jack, I implore you not to wreck your whole fortune in life. It is just because Julia loves you that you are bound to show yourself worthy of her. You know how lucky you were to get this chance. You said only yesterday it was the finest station in the whole world. Don't lose it, like a dear fellow--don't do what will be the imbitterment of your entire life, the loss of your rank, and--the------” She stopped as she was about to add something still stronger. “I 'll go, then, Nelly; don't cry about it; if you sob that way I 'll make a fool of myself. Pretty sight for the flunkies, to see a sailor crying, would n't it? all because he had to join his ship. I'll go, then, at once. I suppose you'll see her to-day, or to-morrow at farthest?”