* * * * *
"What d'you think of me getting married?" I asked Grainger, when he brought my breakfast the morning after my return to the ship.
"Who's it this time, sir?"
"What d'you say to a princess?"
"If she be a real princess, sir," he snorted, "she won't darn your socks, so won't be no 'elp to me. You don't want none of them sort, sir. You want one of 'em steadyin' kind of ones, if you don't mind me a-sayin' so, sir."
"Just you wait and see," I told him.
I had asked them to come down to Portsmouth, to see the old Vigilant again, and they did. They stayed there till we paid off, and I had a great deal of difficulty to boom the others away from my little princess, but managed it fairly successfully.
At last the great day of paying off did arrive, the white ensign and the pendant were hauled down, and we all began scattering to the winds.
Everyone said goodbye to everyone else, and I shook hands with dear "Old Lest".
"Umph! Where are you going?" he asked.