There was no room for hesitation, and no time for delay. Arrangements were made in haste, and the evening of the next day saw the family domiciled for the present at Mr. Farrington’s.
Maurice was there to receive them; the captain had sacrificed his own pleasure, and allowed the leave to his first lieutenant, which they could not both have at once.
It is not my intention to narrate minutely all the events which occurred in London; the interviews between the lovers, the excursions to Woolwich, to inspect the Erratic, and many other particulars not directly bearing on the result to Hilary. Days
passed rapidly, and except for the parting in prospect, would have been very happy. There was a charming uncertainty about the chances of meeting, which increased the pleasure; and besides, there was enough of novelty in the great change to three girls from the forest, to excite and interest them.
Mr. Duncan never would allow his inability to accompany them on many excursions to interfere with their enjoyments; he had his own share, he said, in the different accounts they brought back to him, and it would be a positive loss to him, if either of his daughters were to shut herself up on his account; he had long ago learned to read by himself, and although he had never attained the fluency and ease which some blind persons acquire, perhaps from beginning so late in life, he was yet independent in some respects, and able to occupy his lonely hours by the study now dearer to him than any other, of the Book of Life, which had been his consolation and support in all his trials.
“Shall I, or my rival, have the pleasure of your society to-morrow?” said Hilary, laughingly, to her lover, one evening. His visits were generally made after the hours of work in the dockyard were over.
“Are you jealous of the wandering lady at Woolwich, Hilary?” was his answer.
“Perhaps I might be, if I did not know that, as you deserted her predecessor, and transferred your attentions to her, so you would be equally ready to forsake your present favorite on detecting some defect in her constitution or her powers.”
“A sad specimen of inconstancy,” said he, playfully.
“No, not inconstancy,” replied she, “because the feeling remains the same; it is devotion to your profession which actuates you, and the ship, though well-beloved for a time, is cared for only as an embodiment; a visible symbol of this feeling. It is your profession which is really my rival.”