'But I intend,' continued Captain Jackman, 'to make you a sharer in the business of my detention, by telling you that the letter you hold is to ask you for the hand of your daughter Ada.'
'No, sir, never!' shouted the commander.
'Softly, commander. You do not seem to consider that we are truly in love, that she is over age, and——'
'And what, sir?' bawled Commander Conway.
The captain smiled.
'Keep seated,' said the commander.
He seated himself by the fire, and now the talk flowed.
'This is my only daughter, do you see,' said the silver-headed old man. 'I hope you do not mean to take her from me.'
'Every girl needs a father at the start, and a husband afterwards,' said Captain Jackman. 'This girl is too beautiful and noble in spirit to be allowed to languish on top of a cliff within sight of a single scene of the sea. Young women like pleasures—music, the dance, the theatre, the opera—they do not care for nothing but windmills and fishing-boats——' He was proceeding.
'Hold, sir!' shouted the commander. 'What portion of all this glory could you display to my daughter?'