Mr. Shubrick laughed out.
"Am I?" said he. "Well, perhaps,—though I think not."
"But you are not that midshipman?"
"No. I was he, though."
"Your name,—your name is not Crowninshield?"
"Yes. That is one of my names. Alexander Crowninshield Shubrick, at your service."
Dolly looked at him, like a person awake from a dream, trying to read some of the remembered lineaments of that midshipman in his face. He bore her examination very coolly.
"Why—Oh, is it possible you are he?" cried Dolly with an odd accent of almost disappointment, which struck Mr. Shubrick, but was inexplicable. "Why did you not sign your true name?"
"Excuse me. I signed my true name, as far as it went."
"But not the whole of it. Why didn't you?"