"No, by God!" said the captain. "When I quit her Majesty's service it will be neither for pique nor for love."
"No, indeed, sir," agreed the first lieutenant.
"I've had my follies, too, Mr. Francis," said the captain. "Every man who is worth anything has some time or other made a fool of himself about a woman. I don't pretend to be better than my neighbors. I can't forget I was once young myself."
"I'm afraid even a hundred pounds isn't going to fetch him," said Mr. Francis. "I could see it in the king's eyes he meant to keep the boy."
"The lady in the case is the king's sister, I suppose—" said the captain, "that tall slip of a girl who was always making such sheep's-eyes at Jack. Gad! I don't wonder he preferred a bower in Eden with her to the steerage of a man-of-war and a pack of young devils incarnate! Who knows what might not have happened if she had made sheep's-eyes at me, Mr. Francis!"
"Very true, sir, very true," returned Mr. Francis, who had no sense of humor.
"She's about the sweetest thing I ever saw," went on the captain.
The two men laughed.
"I hope to goodness he'll be the only one," said Mr. Francis. "The fact is, the whole ship's in love; even the lower deck is off its feed; the boatswain says they're messing up the rigging with true-lovers' knots, and I'm told the marines are writing poetry."
"Ah, if it had been anyone but him!" exclaimed the captain.