‘You don’t admire that kind of music?’ ‘If anyone had presumed to make such a noise on any ship of mine, I’d have put ’em in irons,’ said Captain Somerville. They both laughed, and Lady Eliza’s look rested on Cecilia, who had been forced into the velvet chair, and sat listening to Barclay as he stood before her making conversation. Her eyes softened. ‘What do you think of my girl?’ she said. ‘I have only seen one to match her,’ replied the old man, ‘and that was when I was a midshipman on board the flagship nearly half a century ago. It was at a banquet in a foreign port where the fleet was being entertained. She was the wife of some French grandee. Her handkerchief dropped on the floor, and when I picked it up she gave me a curtsey she might have given the King, though I was a boy more fit to be birched at school than to go to banquets. Another young devil, a year or two my senior, said she had done it on purpose for the flag-lieutenant to pick up instead of me; he valued himself on knowing the world.’ Lady Eliza’s eyes were bright with interest. ‘I taught him a little more of it behind the flag-lieutenant’s cabin next morning, and got my leave ashore stopped for it; but it was a rare good trouncing,’ added Captain Somerville, licking his lips. ‘I am sorry your leave was stopped,’ said his companion; ‘I would have given you more if I had been in command.’ ‘You can’t eat your cake and have it, ma’am--and I enjoyed my cake.’ ‘I suppose you never saw her again,’ said she. ‘Never; but I heard of her--she was guillotined in the Revolution a dozen years later. I shall never forget my feelings when I read it. She made a brave business of it, I was told; but no one could look at her and mistake about that.’ They sat silent for some time, and, Mrs. Somerville appropriating Barclay, Cecilia had leisure to turn to Miss Hersey; both she and Lady Eliza had a regard for the old ladies, though between them there was little in common save good breeding. But that can be a strong bond. ‘Come, come; we cannot allow you to monopolize Miss Raeburn any more!’ exclaimed Mrs. Somerville, tapping the lawyer playfully on the arm. ‘We need you at the tea-table; duty first and pleasure after, you know.’ ‘If you will watch my destination, Mrs. Somerville, you will see that it is purely duty which animates me,’ said Barclay, starting off with a cup of tea in one hand and a plate of sweet biscuits in the other. His hostess watched him as he offered the tea with much action to Miss Caroline Robertson. ‘Fie, sir! fie!’ she exclaimed, as he returned; ‘that is too bad!’ ‘For my part, I would shut up all members of your sex after forty,’ said he, rather recklessly. ‘Indeed?’ said Mrs. Somerville, struggling with her smile. She was forty-seven. ‘I meant sixty, ma’am--sixty, of course,’ gasped Barclay, with incredible maladroitness.