“I assure you, my dear Julia, that, though in the aggregate they are somewhat inconsiderate of the feelings of naval officers, they are individually as amiable gentlemen and affectionate husbands as any other men,” said Jack. “My friend, Tom Somers, one of the most lucky dogs in the service, who was a post-captain at five-and-twenty, tells a capital story on the subject. He is, I must confess, impudence personified. He was one day at the Admiralty, complaining to one of the lords, much in the way that you are now doing, of their want of consideration for the feelings of junior officers. The lord heard him out, and then asked him to come and dine with him, which Tom condescended to do; and a very good dinner, with a number of excellent wines, he enjoyed. His host produced one bottle after the other of different descriptions, and of the choicest. ‘And you like my wines?’ he asked. ‘Excellent, all of them, sir,’ answered Tom. ‘I shouldn’t mind dining with you once a week while I remain on shore.’ ‘Very well,’ answered the lord: ‘but as I am leaving home, and cannot have the pleasure of seeing you, I’ll send you a bottle, and you shall tell me how you like it.’
“The next day Tom received a bottle, tied significantly round with red tape, for his host was somewhat of a wag. On tasting it, Tom poured out a glass and drank it off, but the instant afterwards regretted his precipitancy, for he declared that he had never tasted anything so execrable. Just then his friend looked in upon him. ‘Well, Somers, how did you like my wine?’ he asked. ‘I can’t say that I ever wish to take another drop of it,’ answered Tom. ‘Well, I sent you exactly the wines you tasted at my house,’ answered his visitor. ‘You, however, drank them separately; I mixed them together, and you complain of the result. Now if you take each of us lords by ourselves, you will find us as well-disposed and amiable as most other men; but when we act together we put aside all the gentle feelings of our nature, and form the stern, unrelenting body you and others find us.’ I believe, Julia, Tom gave a very exact description of the Admiralty; and however much some of the lords might be disposed to befriend me individually, I should ruin myself in the service were I to plead that I have just married a wife, and would rather not go to sea.”
“Then is there no chance of your getting some other appointment?” asked Julia, in a faltering tone.
“Not the slightest, I am afraid,” answered Jack; “however, we must make the best of a bad case. Some weeks may pass before the ship is ready for sea, and perhaps before that time you will have got tired of me.”
Julia gave a melancholy smile, as she looked up in her husband’s face. “I am jealous of Lucy,” she said after some time; “I suppose the Admiralty will not also be appointing Commander Adair to a ship.”
“I am not so certain of that,” said Jack; “I know that they talk of sending out several to put a stop to the kidnapping system which has of late prevailed in the Pacific, as also to keep some of the black and brown island-chiefs in order, and they may fix on Adair as likely as on anyone else.”
“Poor Lucy!” said Julia; “I am sure I don’t really wish her to share my fate.”
This conversation took place at Colonel Giffard’s, where Jack and his bride were staying. The very next day he got a letter from Adair, who with Lucy was at Southsea, saying that he had been appointed to the Eolus, to proceed forthwith to the Pacific station.
“Lucy behaves capitally, like a sailor’s wife, and says she knows I ought to go—though it is a cruel affair to us both. However, Jack, I know that you will compassionate us, and that your wife will do her best to comfort her when I am away. I tell her that I have hopes of coming back in a couple of years, as I will try at the end of that time to get superseded, which, with the help of the admiral, I hope I may succeed in doing.”
“Poor Lucy!” said Julia, “we must support each other; but when we married, I little thought such would be our fate.”