The herald., 1898-06-05

! was revolving in my mind whether
I could venture to ask of the welfare of
the divine Arabella, and suddenly
direct inspiration came to me. l re-
marked-with bushes and tremors, 1
must admit:
How very Ike Lady Arabella Stor-
mont must Lady Hawkshaw have been
at her age! And Lady Arabells. is
very beautiful young lady"
| Sir Peter grinned like rat-trap at
this awkward compliment and re-
marked:
'Yes, yes, Arabella is like my lady,
except not half so handsome. Egad,
when I married Lady Hawkshaw, had
to cut my way. literally with my sword,
through the body guard of gentlemen
who wanted her. And as for her rela-
tions-well, she defied 'em, that's ALL"
1 tried, with all the little art I pos
sessed, to get some information con-
cerning Arebella out of Sir Peter; but
beyond telling me what knew before,
that she was his great-niece on the
other side of the house and first cousin
to Daphne, and that her father, now
dead, was a scamp and a pauper, in
spite of being an earl, he told me
nothing.
/ I found Sir Peter unbent as the de-
canters grew empty, although I would
not for moment imply that he was
excessive in his drinking. He asked me
if 1 was glad I had Joined the service,
to which 1 could say yes with great
sincerity, impressed upon me my good
| fortune in getting in a ship of the line
in the beginning, and gave me some
excellent advice. I left him with
feeling that I had q friend in that eX-
cellent seaman, honest gentleman, and
odd fish, Admiral Sir Peter Hawk
shaw.
I When + went below, I told my mess
mates all that had occurred, rather ex-
aggerating Sir Peters attentions to me,
as midshipmen will. Then privately
confided to Giles Vernon. I told what
little I had found out concerning the
star of my soul. as I called Arabella,
to which Giles responded by a long
! drawn-out "Ph-ew."
| L implored him If he knew any officer
in the ship who would be likely to be
acquainted with Lady Arabella to
pump him for me. This he promised;
and the very next day, az I sat on a
locker, studying my theorems, Giles
came up.
"Dicky," said he, "Mr. Buxton knows
the divine Arabella. She has fortune
of thirty thousand pounds, and so has
the dove-eyed little Daphne, all inher-
| tied from their granddad, rich Bom-
bay merchant. 1t seems that the Lady
| Arabella's mother bought a coronet
with her money, and it turned out
poor bargain. However. the earl did not
| live long enough to ruin his father-in-
law; and little Daphne's parents, too,
bn ma n
left the girls his fortune and made Sir
Peter their guardian. and that means,
of course, that Polly Hawkshaw is their
guardian. Mr.. Buxton says he would
like to see the fortune-hunter who can
rob Polly of those two damsels. For
Polly says rank and lineage are not
everything She herself, you know,
dates back to the Saxon Heptarchy,
though she did marry the son Of your
drysalting great-grandfather. And she
wants those girls to marry men; and
what Polly says on that score is to be
respected, considering that she married
into drysalting family to please her.
self, or to displease her relations, 1
don't know which. should say, though,
if you are honest and deserving, and
mind your book, and get a good word
from the chaplain, you will probably
one day be the husband of little
Daphne, but not of Lady Arabella: no
man shall marry her while I live, that
you may be sure of; but when l marry
her, you may be side boy at my we'd
ding"
1 thought this speech very cruel of
Giles Vernon, and believed that he did
not know what true love was. else he
could not so trifle with my feelings.
We were three weeks in the Bay of
Biscay, thrashing to windward under
topgallant sails. expecting daily and
hourly to run across Frenchman. We
were hoping for it, because we found
the Ajax" to be a very weatherly
ship and fast for her class; and both
Captain Guilford and Sir Peter, who
had sailed in her before, knew exactly
how to handle her. And we were to
have our wish. For one evening toward
sunset, we sighted French ship of the
line off our beam; and by the time we
had made her out. a light French
frigate was coming down the wind, and
in an hour we were at it hammer and
tongs with both of them.
The Frenchmen thought they had u.s.
We heard afterward that a prize crew
was already told off to take us into
Corunna, but no man or boy on the
Ajax" dreamed of giving up the ship.
The Ajax was cleared for action in
eleven minutes; and with four ensigns
flying, we headed for the ship of the
line, which was waiting for us, with her
topsails shivering. The Ajax" had
been lately coppered. and, with all sail
to royals set, legged it at o, lively gait,
in spite of the heavy sea, which occa-
sionally caused our lower deck guns to
roll their noses in the water. AS we
walowed toward the ship of the line,
which was the "Indomptable,' the
frigate, the "Xantippe," was manoeuv-
ring for a position on our starboard
quarter to rake us. Seeing this, the
Ajax" came up a little into the wind,
which brought our broadside to bear
directly on the "Xantippe," and she
edged off a little
The steadiness, GOODNESS, and preci-
sion with which the ship was handled
astoni5hed my young mind. I knew
very well that If we were defeated, Sir
Peter Hawkshaw would stand no show
of leniency, for there was no doubt that
owing to our new copper. we could
easily have outsailed the F'renchmen;
but Sir Peter preferred to Outright them,
even against desperate odds.
The officers and men had entire con-
fidence in Sir Peter and in the ship. and
went into action with the heartiest
goodwill imaginable. The people were
amused by two powder monkeys COM