"Then, you were not at sea, Captain?" observed Burrell, seating himself, and unclasping his cloak.
"I did not say so," replied the other, bringing his bushy brows more closely over his eyes, and glancing suspiciously upon the questioner.
"Oh, no; I only imagined it."
"Well, sir, I was not at sea, and I care not who knows it."
"But, my worthy friend, we have been acquainted too long for you to fear my 'peaching aught concerning you or your doings."
"And did I talk of fear?" inquired the Buccaneer, with a droll and yet bitter expression. "Well, if I did, I only follow, as Robin would say, the example of my betters, by talking about what I don't understand."
"Vastly good, and true!—true as the——"
"Needle to the pole; the finest simile in nature, Sir Willmott Burrell: you were fishing for a holy one, I saw, which is what these walls don't often hear, for we've no laggers nor warpes among us."
"You've enlarged this room, and improved it much, Captain, since I last saw it."
"Humph! ay, that was, I remember, when his Highness——"