CHAPTER IV.
THE SAME.
Nan was growing desperate. Speak she must, if only to let him know that she was sensible of his kindness in affording her this blissful relief; for she believed it was entirely on her account that he had proposed to sit out the dance. So she said, wildly,
'You go to a great many balls, I suppose?'
'Oh, dear no,' he said. 'I am not much ashore.'
Of course. She might have known. Was there not an air of command about him, young as he was? No doubt he held far too important a position to waste time on idle entertainments.
'I mean earlier—as a midshipman,' she stammered. 'You must have been to many places, and—and—I thought the life of a midshipman was nothing but parties and balls, along with a great deal of mischief. That is what one reads, you know, about the young gentlemen—always tumbling into trouble, and always getting happily out of it, and always amusing themselves just as much as they amuse others.'
This was not so bad. Nan's face had brightened; she regarded him with her clear eyes.
'You are thinking of Captain Marryat,' said he, laughing. 'But times have changed sadly for the middy since then. It isn't all beer and skittles now. Nowadays, the poor chap can scarcely call his soul his own; and if he is going in for his Three Ones——'
'I beg your pardon; what is that?' she said, with a grave interest.
'Trifling little things,' said he, jocosely. 'Only first-class certificates in gunnery, seamanship, and mathematics; then, to finish up with, the unhappy youth has to look forward to an interview or two with the hydrographer, who isn't at all a gentleman to be made a fool of.'
How was it that she knew instinctively that this young officer had got his Three Ones—nay, that he had carried them off easily, triumphantly? What was there in his manner, or the shape of his forehead, or his expression, that rendered her perfectly certain that he had nothing to fear from all the hydrographers ever born?
'Why, even in my time, I can remember, when the middy was allowed a good deal more law,' he continued; and now he had sat down beside her, and her eyes met his quite frankly. 'I remember a fearful scene at Cherbourg, at a ball there; that was when the fleet went over, and there was a great round of festivities. Well, this ball, I think, was given by the Mayor—I am not quite sure; but, at all events, the midshipmites were invited with the rest, and those who could get leave went of course. Well, we had the run of the refreshment-room, and we used it. There was far too much champagne, and all our seniors were in the ball-room,—the Duke of Somerset, and the whole of them,—so we set to work to chaff the waiters in unknown tongues. Anything more patient or friendly than the conduct of these amiable creatures I never saw. They entirely entered into the spirit of the thing, and grinned and nodded in high glee when we inquired about their mothers and sisters—in English, of course; and then we tried bad French on them, and Welsh, with a touch of Lancashire thrown in; and then they grinned all the more, and shrugged their shoulders. My chum Greville was the worst, I think; he kept asking for all sorts of ridiculous things, and was very angry when he couldn't get them. "Avez-vous du vin de Cockalorum?" he asked of one fellow: of course Greville spoke real true-blue English-French. "Coque-a-lorrrrme?" said the waiter. "Je crois que non, Monsieur——." "Pourquoi n'avez vous pas du vin de Cockalorum?" said Greville, with great indignation. "C'est une chose monstrueuse. Nous sommes les invités de la grande nation Francaise; nous sommes les officiers de sa Majesté la Reine d'Angleterre; et vous n'avez pas du vin de Cockalorum!" There was enough of other wine, at all events,' added Frank King. 'I am afraid there was a good deal of headache next morning among the younger officers of her Majesty's fleet.'
'Weren't you afraid,' said Nan, who had forgotten what shyness was by this time; 'weren't you afraid the French might be tempted to take a mean advantage and capture the fleet bodily?'
'It would have been no more mean advantage,' said he, with a laugh, 'than we used to take in fighting them when they were sea-sick.'
'Sailors sea-sick?' she exclaimed.
'Yes, that's just where it was,' he said, and the friendly interest he displayed in this young lady was very wonderful. Already they seemed to have known each other for a quite indefinite time. 'Mind you, people laugh nowadays at the old belief that one English sailor was as good as seven French ones. But it was quite true; and the explanation is simple enough. The fact was that the English kept such a strict blockade of the French ports that the French sailors never had a proper chance of finding their sea legs. They never got out. When they did come out they had to fight; and how can you expect a sea-sick man to fight? But I was talking of that chum of mine, Greville. He was the coolest hand I ever came across. Once he and I—when we were mids, you know—had to go down by rail from Genoa to Spezia——'
At this moment the music slowly ceased; and the kaleidoscopic groups out there, that had been going through all sorts of interminglings and combinations, lost cohesion, as it were, and melted away into the murmuring and amorphous crowd. Miss Nan knew very well that she ought now to return to her mamma; but how was she to break in upon this story? When one has already begun to tell you something, more particularly when that something is about himself and an old companion—and especially if you do not wish to be perplexed with invitations to dance—it is not polite to interrupt.
So the young lieutenant, taking no notice whatever of the cessation of the dancing, continued his story, and told several more, which Miss Nan found intensely interesting—so absorbing, indeed, that she met the eyes of her companion without any abashment, and frequently laughed in her low, quiet way. These two seemed very friendly, and heedless of what was going on around them; and might, in fact, have continued talking for a quite indefinite time had not, all of a sudden, Charley Stratherne come up, followed by a tall man with a long yellow beard; and before Nan knew what had happened, she was being led away to pierce the great throng that had now grown very dense indeed, a waltze having already begun. As for the young lieutenant, he somewhat abruptly declined his friend's offer to find him a partner.
'You have plenty of dancing men; there won't be room to move shortly.'
Charley Stratherne was too busy to stay and ask why his friend refused to dance, and would not even remain in the ball-room; the next second he was off. Then the young lieutenant managed to make his way through the crowd to the door; and as there were still plenty of people arriving, he succeeded in passing his hostess unobserved and making his way downstairs.
He entered the brilliantly-decorated but quite empty supper-room, and sat down. One of the servants happened to come in and stared at him.
'Look here,' said he, 'could you get me an evening paper?'
'Oh yes, sir,' said the man: and he went off and speedily returned with the newspaper.
Frank King sat down, turned his back to the table, and was soon all by himself in this long chamber, apparently deeply absorbed in the evening's news. What he really was doing, however, was listening to the music overhead.
Meanwhile, Nan got through the waltz somehow. The crush was so great that her partner, who was not much of a pilot, generally succeeded in steering her into some little side bay, where they came slowly to rest by mere friction, or else landed her right in the middle of the room, where there was a throng of unskilful dancers become stationary in spite of themselves. At last she was surrendered again to her mother's care.
'Well, Nan,' said Lady Beresford, with an amused look, 'how did you get on?'
'You mean how much did I get off?' said she.
'I believe I'm all in rags. And that elephant of a man bumped me against every person in the room.'
Here the Admiral came along—bustling as was his wont, talking to everybody at the same time, and invariably putting his hand on the shoulder of those whom he knew best, to give effect to his speech.
'Well, well, my girl,' he said, 'how did you like your partner? Did he amuse you? Did he compliment you on the roses in your cheeks—ah, that's the Brighton air, that is.'
'Oh, if you mean Lieutenant King,' said Nan, without any hesitation or embarrassment, 'I think he is very amusing indeed—very. And very clever, too, is he not?
'Oh yes, he's a smart young fellow—a smart young fellow is Frank King.
We've had an eye on him for some time back.'
'I should say now,' remarked Nan, with a wise air, 'that he had got his
Three Ones?'
The Admiral stared at her, and then burst out laughing.
'You young impertinence! What do you know about the Three Ones? He had got his certificates before he was one-and-twenty. But here, I will tell you something.'
He took her a step aside.
'Hush, now—hush-sh. It is a State secret. Don't say a word. But I'll tell you what we're going to do with Frank King to-morrow; we're going to give him the command of the Fly-by-Night. What do you think of that for a lieutenant of five-and-twenty?'
'If he has relatives, I suppose they will be very proud,' said Nan.
'Relatives? Don't you know the Kings of Kingscourt? But there now, I mustn't keep you talking; I suppose you're engaged for every dance. Mind you are down at supper while I'm there; I will drink a glass of wine to the roses in your cheeks——'
And so he was off again before she could say, as she greatly wished to say—'Oh, Sir George, I would rather talk to you than have to do any more dancing. Surely there are enough people dancing.'
Then she looked round the room for some considerable time. At last she said to herself contentedly,
'Yes, I thought he was too clever looking to care about dancing, and I don't wonder he has gone home. But it would have been nice if I had had the chance to tell him he was going to have the command of the Fly-by-Night.'