“Come with me, Mr. Arden; you could not have stumbled upon a man who can so much relieve your mind as I can. Thank God for this strange and most unexpected meeting!”
Julian Arden felt a sensation of happiness he had not experienced for years. He followed the commander into his cabin, and then the delighted O’Loughlin—whose generous nature never felt so elated, or experienced so much pleasure, as when rendering a service to a friend—again warmly shook the young man by the hand, told him to consider himself as much at home in the little Onyx as himself, and summoning the steward, ordered him to place refreshments and wine on the table.
“I am so overpowered, Captain O’Loughlin, by your extreme kindness, and so bewildered by hearing so suddenly intelligence that fills my heart with rapture—for I judge, by your words and manner, that I may expect to hear that my beloved mother and sister are both alive—whilst alas! for years I have mourned them as dead.”
“It delights me,” said O’Loughlin, “to be able to positively assure you that not only is your mother, Madame de Coulancourt, alive, but she had been, when last we heard of her, restored to her estate of Coulancourt, and was residing in Paris. Your sister, Mabel Arden, who has grown into a most lovely girl, is in England, residing with a French lady, a Madame Volney. There is, or will be, time enough for mutual explanations this evening, provided we do not again encounter the Prudente—an ugly customer for the little Onyx. I wish my consort was up with us—we should then be able to manage our friend.”
“The Prudente is a very fine craft,” said Julian Arden, “but her commander is one of the most vulgar tyrants that ever trod a deck.”
“Now, make yourself comfortable,” said the Commander, as the steward placed the breakfast equipage on the table; for the day was yet young, and neither the commander of the Onyx nor his officer had broken their fast.
“You can have a suit of Charley Pole’s garments to put on, instead of that dress. You are much of a height. Nature made me a head too tall, like my poor friend Sir Oscar de Bracy—ah! that’s the man who saved your sister Mabel, and carried her safe to England. Be the gods of war! when you hear all, you will love him as I do.”
“Sir Oscar de Bracy!” repeated Julian Arden; “why, my mother’s brother is a Sir Oscar de Bracy; surely you don’t mean him?”
“No, my dear fellow, I mean his son; however, eat your breakfast; an empty stomach is a worse enemy than a forty-gun frigate; you may beat off the one, but you must satisfy the other. Steward, call down Lieutenant Pole, or the steak will be cold.”
Lieutenant Pole and Julian Arden were soon introduced to each other; Charles Pole remembered all the circumstances of the affair at Toulon, and William Thornton’s care of little Mabel Arden, so that, in fact, Julian appeared as if he had come amongst old friends.