Just for the present Will was too hurt and too humiliated to think of his poverty, as he stalked a few paces behind Donna Rusidda and the Admiral, who, having made up his charitable resolve, soon melted again under the smiles of the beautiful girl.
“It would be much better if you had not seen the all sit-oo-ation,” said Donna Rusidda.
“Oh, I can easily make that all right,” answered the Admiral cheerily.
“Is it so? I think the Signor W-Will he look like the thunder.”
“Well, I think he looks more like the rain; but he can thunder, I assure you, and lighten too.”
“Perhaps I oughted not to do it, but in Naples it is very droll.”
“Well, of course I had rather you had done it to me, or to my captain. I always make a point of considering a boy’s pride more than a man’s. I was a very little chap when I first went to sea, Princess. The first thing the boatswain said when he saw me, was that I was not long for this world. But I have cheated him,” he continued, cutting a comical little caper.
“Do not speak it too soon, Eccellenza: you are not so old.”
“Not old!—why, I am forty.”
“The Ambassador’s wife she gave the ball on your native day, is it not?”