"Oh, sir! You here! I am very glad of it! There is a little matter to be discussed between you and me! Old Hen! leave us! vanish! evaporate!"
Henrietta was well pleased to do so. And as she closed the door the commodore turned to Thurston, and with another emphatic thump of his cane, said:
"Well, sir! a small craft is soon rigged, and a short speech soon made.
In two words, how dare you, sir! make love to Jacquelina?"
"My dear uncle—"
"By Neptune, sir; don't 'uncle' me. I ask you how you dared to make love to my niece?"
"Sir, you mistake, she made love to me."
"You impudent, impertinent, unprincipled jackanape."
"Come," said Thurston to himself, "I have got into a hornet's nest this morning."
"I shall take very good care, sir, to have Major Le Roy informed what sort of a gentleman it is who is paying his addresses to his daughter."
"Miss Le Roy will be likely to form a high opinion of me before this week is out," said Thurston, laughing.