"An end to it, you mean?" answered he. "Why, ma'am, if there were an end to it, it couldn't be a 'short' yarn at all—that would be to finish and 'whip' it, as we say, before it's long enough for the purpose: whereas, luckily, my life hasn't got to a close yet."
"Oh!" said the lady, "no sea casuistry for us; besides, I am aware of the sequel, you know!" "Why, ma'am," answered the Captain, looking up innocently, "it wasn't for two years and a half afterwards that I—I settled, you know! Do you mean me to tell you all that happened in that time, about the Frenchman, and what befell the schooner in the China seas? 'twould last the voyage home; but if you'll go back with me, I've no particular objection, now I've got into the way."
"No, no, my dear Captain," said the lady, "we have had enough for the present of your nautical details—I beg pardon—but tell us how you succeeded in——"
"Well," interrupted the narrator, rather hastily, "'twas somewhat thus: I was at home at Croydon, being by that time first lieutenant of the Hebe; but she was just paid off. One morning, at breakfast, the letter-bag from the village was brought in as usual, my mother taking them out, reading off all the addresses through her spectacles, while Jane made the coffee. My mother handed Jane a ship-letter, which she put somewhere in her dress, with a blush, so that I knew in a moment it must be from Tom Westwood, who was in the Company's civil service in India, up-country. 'None for me, mother?' asked I eagerly; for the fact was, I had got one or two at different times, at Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, during the two years. 'Yes, Ned,' said my mother, eyeing it again and again, anxiously enough, as I thought; 'there is—but I fear it is some horrid thing from those Admirals'—the Admiralty, she meant—'and they will be sending you off immediately—or a war, or something. Oh dear me, Ned,' exclaimed the good woman, quite distressed, 'won't you do as I wish you, and stay altogether!' By the Lord Harry! when I opened it, 'twas a letter from Lord Frederick Bury, who had succeeded to his eldest brother's title while we were out, saying he had the promise of a commandership for me, as soon as a new brig for the West-India station was ready. 'I shan't have to go for six or seven months at any rate, mother,' said I, 'by which time I shall be confounded tired of the land, I know!' She wanted me to buy a small estate near Croydon, shoot, fish, and dig, I suppose; while Jane said I ought to marry, especially as she had a girl with money in her eye for me. Still, they saw it was no use, and began to give it up.
"Why I never heard at all from a certain quarter, I couldn't think. Till that time, in fact, I had been as sure of her proving true as I was of breezes blowing; but now I couldn't help fancying all sorts of tyranny on the Judge's part and her mother's, not to speak of Tom's uncle, the Councillor. I went down the lane for the twentieth time, past the end of the house they had lived in, where the windows had been shuttered up and the gates close ever since I came. All of a sudden, this time, I saw there were workmen about the place, the windows open, and two servants washing down the yellow wheels of a travelling-carriage. I made straight back for our house, went up to Jane, who was at her piano in the drawing-room, and asked, quite out of breath, who was come to the house over the park behind us. 'Did you not know that old Nabob was coming back from India?' said Jane. 'His face was getting too yellow, I suppose; and, besides, his wife is dead—from his crossness, no doubt. But the young lady is an heiress, Ned, and as I meant to tell you, from good authority'—here the sly creature looked away into her music—'passionately fond of the sea, which means, you know, of naval officers.' 'The devil she is, Jane!' I broke out; 'what did Westwood mean by that?—but when are they coming, for Heaven's sake?' 'Why,' said Jane, 'I believe, from what I heard our gardener say, they arrived last night.' 'Then, by Jove, my dear girl!' said I, 'I'll tell you a secret—and mind, I count on you!'
"My little sister was all alive in a moment, ran to the door and shut it, then settled herself on the sofa to hear what I had to say, as eagerly as you please. So I told her what the whole matter was, with the state of things when we left Calcutta. Jane seemed to reckon the affair as clear as a die; and you've no notion what a lot of new ropes she put me up to in a concern of the kind, as well as ways to carry it out ship-shape to the end, in spite of the Judge—or else to smooth him over.
"The long and short of it was, I didn't leave till about seven months after, when the Ferret was put in commission; but by that time it was all smooth sailing before me. The Judge had got wonderfully softened; and you may be sure, I continued to see Violet Hyde pretty often before I went to sea. You'd scarce believe it, but, after that twelve months' cruise, I actually didn't leave the land for two years, which I did owing to the chance I had of seeing sharp service in the Burmese war, up the rivers, while General Campbell had tough work with them inland. So that's all I can say, ma'am!"
"Very good, sir!" was the surgeon's cool remark. "And, in fact, sir, I fancy if every one of us were to commence telling his whole life over, with everything that happened to him and his friends, he must stop short somewhere—however long it might be!" The Captain smiled; they sat on the poop talking for awhile, sometimes saying nothing, but watching the last night at sea.
The pilot-brig is spoken to windward next morning, even while the deep-sea lead-line is being hove to sound the bottom. Falling sudden from the foreyard, the weight takes the long line from hand after hand back to the gangway, till it trembles against the ground. 'Tis drawn up slowly, the wet coil secured, and the bottom of the lead showing its little hollow filled with signs of earth—"Grey sand and shells!" They stand on till the pilot is on board, the low land lifts and lengthens before the ship; but the flow of the tide has yet to come, and take them safely up amongst the winding shoals into the Indian river's mouth. A new land, and the thoughts of strange new life, the gorgeous sights and fantastic realities of the mighty country of the Mogul and Rajahs, crowd before them after the wide solitary sea. The story is already all but forgotten.—And the anchor is let go!