"Well, well, my boy!"—Captain Edney patted him gently on the shoulder,—"you are forgiven this time. I am sure you did not mean to get drunk."
"O, sir!" began Frank, but stopped there, over whelmed by the captain's kindness.
"I know all about it," said Captain Edney. "Tucket assures me that he and the rest were more to blame than you. But, for the sake of your friends, Frank, take warning by this experience, and never be betrayed into any thing of the kind again. I trust you. And here, my boy, are your letters."
He put half a dozen into Frank's hands. And Frank, as he took them, felt his very heart melt within him with gratitude and contrition. He was not thinking so much of the letters as of Captain Edney and his watch.
"Forgive me; forgive me!" he humbly entreated.
"I do, freely, as I told you," said the captain.
"But—the watch you gave me!"
"Dear boy!"—the captain put his arm kindly about him,—"haven't I always told you I knew nothing about the watch? I did not give it to you, nor do I know what generous friend did."
"It is true, then?" Frank looked up with a half-glad, half-disappointed expression. He was disappointed to know that so good a friend was not the donor of the watch, and yet glad that he had not wronged him by gambling it away. "Then, Captain Edney, I wish you would tell me what to do. I have done the worst and meanest thing. I have lost the watch."
And he went on to relate how he had lost it. Captain Edney heard him with deep concern. He had all along felt a sense of responsibility for the boy Mrs. Manly had intrusted to him, as well as a genuine affection for him; he had therefore double cause to be pained by this unexpected development.