"Thus the rich vessel moves in trim array,
Like some fair virgin on her bridal day:
Thus like a swan, she cleaves the watery plain,
The pride and wonder of the Aegean main.
"The natives, while the ship departs the land,
Ashore, with admiration gazing stand:
Majestically slow before the breeze,
In silent pomp, she marches on the seas."
FALCONER.
Much to the satisfaction of Captain Drawlock, the chronometers and the
ladies were safe on board, and the Bombay Castle proceeded to the Downs,
where she was joined by the purser, charged with the despatches of the
august directors. Once upon a time a director was a very great man, and
the India board a very great board. There must have been a very great
many plums in the pudding, for in this world people do not take trouble
for nothing; and until latter years, how eagerly, how perseveringly was
this situation applied for--what supplicating advertisements--what
fawning and wheedling promises of attention to the interests of the
proprietors--your "voices, good people!" But now nobody is so
particularly anxious to be a director, because another board "bigger
than he" has played the kittiwake, and forced it to disgorge for the
consumption of its superior,--I mean the Board of Control: the reader
has probably heard of it; the board which, not content with the European
residents in India being deprived of their proudest birthright, "the
liberty of the press," would even prevent them from having justice
awarded to them, by directing two tame elephants (thereby implying two
--- ---) to be placed on each side of a wild one (thereby implying an
honest and conscientious man). Notwithstanding all which, for the
present, the tongue, the ears and the eyes are permitted to be made
discreet use of, although I believe that the new charter is to have a
clause introduced to the contrary.
The prevalent disease of the time we live in is ophthalmia of intellect,
affecting the higher classes. Monarchs, stone-blind, have tumbled
headlong from their thrones, and princes have been conducted by their
subjects out of their principalities. The aristocracy are purblind, and
cannot distinctly decipher the "signs of the times." The hierarchy
cannot discover why people would have religion at a reduced price: in
fact, they are all blind, and will not perceive that an enormous mass,
in the shape of public opinion, hangs over their heads and threatens to
annihilate them. Forgetting that kings, and princes, and lords,
spiritual or temporal, have all been raised to their various degrees of
exaltation by public opinion alone, they talk of legitimacy, of vested
rights, and Deuteronomy.--Well, if there is to be a general tumble,
thank God, I can't fall far!
We left the Bombay Castle in the Downs, where she remained until joined
by several other India vessels. On the arrival of a large frigate, who
had orders to escort them as far as the Island of St. Helena, they all
weighed, and bore down the Channel before a strong South East gale. The
first ten days of a voyage there is seldom much communication between
those belonging to the ship and the passengers; the former are too much
occupied in making things shipshape, and the latter with the miseries of
sea-sickness. An adverse gale in the Bay of Biscay, with which they had
to contend, did not at all contribute to the recovery of the digestive
powers of the latter; and it was not until a day or two before the
arrival of the convoy at Madeira that the ribbon of a bonnet was to be
seen fluttering in the breeze which swept the decks of the Bombay
Castle.
The first which rose up from the quarter-deck hatchway was one that
encircled the head of Mrs Ferguson, the wife of the presbyterian
divine, who crawled up the ladder, supported on one side by her husband,
and on the other by the assiduous Captain Drawlock.
"Very well done, ma'am, indeed!" said the captain, with an encouraging
smile, as the lady seized hold of the copper stanchions which surrounded
the sky-lights, to support herself, when she had gained the deck.
"You're a capital sailor, and have by your conduct set an example to the
other ladies, as I have no doubt your husband does to the gentlemen.
Now allow me to offer you my arm."
"Will you take mine also, my dear," said Mr Ferguson.
"No, Mr Ferguson," replied the lady, tartly; "I think it is enough for
you to take care of yourself. Recollect your Scripture proverb of `the
blind leading the blind.' I have no inclination to tumble into one of
those pits," added she, pointing to the hatchway.
Captain Drawlock very civilly dragged the lady to the weather-side of
the quarter-deck, where, after in vain attempting to walk, she sat down
upon one of the carronade slides.
"The fresh air will soon revive you, ma'am; you'll be much better
directly," observed the attentive captain. "I beg your pardon one
moment, but there is another lady coming out of the cuddy."
The cabins abaft the cuddy or dining-room were generally occupied by the
more distinguished and wealthy passengers (a proportionate sum being
charged extra for them). The good people of Glasgow, with a due regard
to economy, had not run themselves into such unnecessary expenses for
the passage of Mr and Mrs Ferguson. Mr Revel, aware of the effect
produced by an appearance of wealth, had taken one of them for his
daughters. The other had been secured by Miss Tavistock, much to the
gratification of the captain, who thus had his unmarried ladies and his
chronometers both immediately under his own eye.
The personage who had thus called away the attention of the captain was
Isabel Revel, whom, although she has already been mentioned, it will be
necessary to describe more particularly to the reader.
Isabel Revel was now eighteen years old, endowed with a mind so
superior, that had not her talents been checked by a natural reserve,
she might have stepped from the crowd, and have been hailed as a genius.
She had been brought up by a foolish mother, and had in her earlier
years been checked by her two insipid sisters, who assumed over her an
authority which their age alone could warrant. Seldom, if ever,
permitted to appear when there was company, that she might not "spoil
the market" of the eldest, she had in her solitude applied much to
reading, and thus had her mind been highly cultivated.
The conduct of her father entitled him to no respect; the heartlessness
of her mother to no esteem; the tyranny of her sisters, to no affection;
yet did she strive to render all. Until the age of sixteen she had been
the Cinderella of the family, during which period of seclusion she had
learned to think and to act for herself.
Her figure was a little above the middle size, light and elegant; her
features beautiful, with an expression of seriousness, arising probably
from speaking little and reflecting much. Yet she possessed a mind
ardent and enthusiastic, which often bore her away in animated
discourse, until the eye of admiration fixed upon her, would suddenly
close her lips, for her modesty and her genius were at perpetual
variance.
It is well known to most of my readers that woman is a problem; but it
may not be as well known that now-a-days, she is a _mathematical
problem_. Yet so it is. As in the latter you have certain known
quantities given by which you are to find a quantity unknown, so in a
lady you have the hand, the foot, the mouth, etcetera, apparent; and
'tis only by calculation, now that modern dresses are made so full, that
you can arrive at a just estimate of her approach to total perfection.
All good arithmeticians, as they scrutinised the outward and the visible
of Isabel Revel, were perfectly assured as to her quotient. But if I
talked for hours, I could say no more than that she was one of those
ideal images created in the dream of youth and poetry, fairly embodied
in flesh and blood. As her father had justly surmised, could she have
been persuaded to have tried her fortune on the stage, she had personal
attractions, depth of feeling, and vivacity of mind to have rendered her
one of the very first in a profession, to excel in which, perhaps, there
is more correct judgment and versatility of talent required than in any
other, and would have had a fair prospect of obtaining that coronet
which has occasionally been the reward of those fair dames who "stoop to
conquer."
Mr Revel, who had been made acquainted with the customs on board of
East India ships, had been introduced to Mrs Ferguson, and had
requested her to take upon herself the office of _chaperone_ to his
daughters, during the passage; a nominal charge indeed, yet considered
to be etiquette. Mrs Ferguson, pleased with the gentleman--like
demeanour and personal appearance of Mr Revel, and perhaps at the same
time not sorry to have an authority to find fault, had most graciously
acquiesced, and the three Miss Revels were considered to be under her
protection.
As I said before, Miss Isabel Revel made her appearance not unattended,
for she was escorted by Doctor Plausible, the surgeon of the ship. And
now I must again digress while I introduce that gentleman. I never
shall get that poor girl from the cuddy-door.
Doctor Plausible had been summoned to prescribe for Miss Laura Revel,
who suffered extremely from the motion of the vessel, and the remedies
which she had applied to relieve her uneasiness. Miss Laura Revel had
been told by somebody, previous to her embarkation, that the most
effectual remedy for sea-sickness was gingerbread. In pursuance of the
advice received, she had provided herself with ten or twelve squares of
this commodity, about one foot by eighteen inches, which squares she had
commenced upon as soon as she came on board, and had never ceased to
swallow, notwithstanding various interruptions. The more did her
stomach reject it, the more did she force it down, until, what, with
deglutition, _et vice versa_, she had been reduced to a state of extreme
weakness, attended with fever.
How many panaceas have been offered without success for two evils--
sea-sickness and hydrophobia! and between these two there appears to be
a link, for sea-sickness as surely ends in hydrophobia, as hydrophobia
does in death. The sovereign remedy prescribed, when I first went to
sea, was a piece of fat pork, tied to a string to be swallowed, and then
pulled up again; the dose to be repeated until effective. I should not
have mentioned this well-known remedy, as it has long been superseded by
other nostrums, were it not that this maritime prescription has been the
origin of two modern improvements in the medical catalogue--one is the
stomach pump, evidently borrowed from this simple engine; the other is
the very successful prescription now in vogue, to those who are weak in
the digestive organs, to eat fat bacon for breakfast, which I have no
doubt was suggested to Doctor Vance, from what he had been eye-witness
to on board of a man-of-war.
But here I am digressing again from Doctor Plausible to Dr Vance.
Reader, I never lose the opportunity of drawing a moral; and what an
important one is here! Observe how difficult it is to regain the right
path when once you have quitted it. Let my error be a warning to you in
your journey through life, and my digressions preserve you from
diverging from the beaten track, which, as the Americans would say,
leads _clean slick_ on to happiness and peace.
Doctor Plausible was a personable man, apparently about five-and-thirty
years old: he wore a little powder in his hair, black silk stockings,
and knee-breeches. In this I consider Doctor Plausible was right; the
above look much more scientific than Wellington trousers; and much
depends upon the exterior. He was quite a ladies' man; talked to them
about their extreme sensibility, their peculiar fineness of organic
structure, their delicacy of nerves; and soothed his patients more by
flattery than by physic. Having discovered that Miss Laura was not
inclined to give up her gingerbread, he immediately acknowledged its
virtues, but recommended that it should be cut into extremely small
dice, and allowed, as it were, to melt, away upon the tongue; stating,
that her digestive organs were so refined and delicate, that they would
not permit them selves to be loaded with any large particles, even of
farinaceous compound. Isabel Revel, who had been informed that Mrs
Ferguson was on deck, expressed a wish to escape from the confined
atmosphere of the cabin; and Doctor Plausible, as soon as he had
prescribed for Miss Laura, offered Miss Isabel his services; which, for
want of a better, perhaps, were accepted.
The ship at this time had a great deal of motion. The gale was spent;
but the sea created by the violence of the wind had not yet subsided,
and the waves continued still to rise and fall again, like the panting
breasts of men who have just desisted from fierce contention. Captain
Drawlock hastened over to receive his charge from the hands of the
medical attendant; and paying Isabel some compliments on her appearance,
was handing her over to the weather-side, where Mrs Ferguson was
seated, when a sea of larger dimensions than usual careened the ship to
what the sailors term a "heavy lurch." The decks were wet and slippery.
Captain Drawlock lost his footing and was thrown to leeward. Isabel
would have most certainly kept him company; and indeed was already under
weigh for the lee-scuppers, had not it been that Newton Forster, who
stood near, caught her round the waist, and prevented her from falling.
It certainly was a great presumption to take a young lady round the
waist previous to any introduction; but, at sea, we are not very
particular; and if we do perceive that a lady is in danger of a severe
fall, we do not stand upon etiquette. What is more remarkable, we
generally find that the ladies excuse our unpolished manners, either
upon the score of our good intentions, or because there is nothing so
very impertinent in them after all. Certain it is, that Isabel, as soon
as she had recovered from her alarm, thanked Newton Forster, with a
sweet smile, for his timely aid, as she again took the arm of Captain
Drawlock, who escorted her to the weather-side of the quarter-deck.
"I have brought you one of your _protegees_, Mrs Ferguson," said
Captain Drawlock. "How do you feel, Miss Revel?"
"Like most young ladies, sir, a little giddy," replied Isabel. "I hope
you were not hurt, Captain Drawlock; I'm afraid that you fell by paying
more attention to me than to yourself."
"My duty, Miss Revel. Allow me to add, my pleasure," replied the
captain, bowing.
"That's very politely said, Captain Drawlock," replied Isabel.
"Almost too polite, I think," observed Mrs Ferguson (who was out of
humour at not being the first object of attention), "considering that
Captain Drawlock is a married man, with seven children." The captain
looked glum, and Miss Revel observing it, turned the conversation, by
inquiring--"Who was that gentleman who saved me from falling?"
"Mr Newton Forster, one of the mates of the vessel. Would you like to
walk Miss Revel or remain where you are?"
"Thank you, I will stay with Mrs Ferguson."
The gentlemen passengers had as yet but occasionally appeared on deck.
Men generally suffer more from the distressing sickness than women. As
soon, however, as the news had been communicated below, that the ladies
were on deck, some of the gentlemen immediately repaired to their
trunks, to make themselves presentable, and then hastened on deck. The
first on deck was the old colonel, who tottered up the hatchway, and by
dint of seizing rope after rope, at last succeeded in advancing his
lines to within hearing range of Mrs Ferguson, to whom he had been
formally introduced. He commenced by lamenting his unfortunate
sufferings, which had prevented him from paying those attentions, ever
to him a source of enjoyment and gratification; but he was a martyr--
quite a martyr; never felt any sensation which could be compared to it,
except when he was struck in the breast with a spent ball, in the battle
of ---; that their appearance had made him feel revived already; that as
the world would be a dark prison without the sun, so would a ship be
without the society of ladies; commenced a description of Calcutta, and
then--made a hasty retreat to the lee-gangway.
The young writer next made his appearance, followed by two boys, who
were going out as cadets; the first, with a new pair of grey kid gloves,
the others in their uniforms. The writer descanted long upon his own
miseries, without any inquiry or condolement for the sufferings of the
ladies. The cadets said nothing; but stared so much at Isabel Revel,
that she dropped her veil.
The ladies had been about a quarter of an hour on deck, when the sun,
which had not shown itself for two days, gleamed through the clouds.
Newton, who was officer of the watch, and had been accustomed when with
Mr Berecroft, to work a chronometer, interrupted the captain, who was
leaning on the carronade, talking to Mrs Ferguson.
"The sun is out, and the horizon pretty clear, sir; you may have sights
for the chronometers."
"Yes, indeed," said the captain, looking up; "be quick, and fetch my
sextant. You'll excuse me, ladies, but the chronometers must be
attended to."
"In preference to us, Captain Drawlock?--Fie for shame!" replied Mrs
Ferguson.
"Why, not exactly," replied the captain, "not exactly; but the fact is
that the sun may go in again."
"And we can stay out, I presume?" replied Isabel, laughing. "I think,
Mrs Ferguson, we ought to go in too."
"But, my dear young lady, if the sun goes in, I shall not get a
_sight_!"
"And if we go in, you will not get a sight either," replied Mrs
Ferguson.
"Between the two, sir," observed Newton, handing Captain Drawlock his
sextant, "you stand a chance of losing both. There's no time to spare;
I'm all ready."
Captain Drawlock walked to the break of the gangways, so far concealed
from the ladies that they could not perceive that he was looking through
his sextant, the use of which they did not comprehend, having never seen
one before. Newton stood at the capstern, with his eyes fixed on the
watch.
"Captain Drawlock," said Mrs Ferguson, calling to him, "allow me to
observe--"
"_Stop_," cried Captain Drawlock, in a loud voice. Newton, to whom this
was addressed, noted the time.
"Good heavens what can be the matter;" said Mrs Ferguson, with
astonishment, to those near her; "how excessively rude of Captain
Drawlock;--what can it be?" continued she, addressing the colonel, who
had rejoined them.
"Really, madam, I cannot tell; but it is my duty to inquire," replied
the colonel, who, going up to Captain Drawlock, commenced--"Have the
ladies already so fallen in your estimation--"
"Forty degrees!" cried Captain Drawlock, who was intent upon his
sextant. "Excuse me, sir, just now."
"When will you be at leisure, sir?" resumed the colonel, haughtily.
"Twenty-six minutes," continued the captain, reading off his sextant.
"A little sooner, I should hope, sir," retorted the colonel.
"Forty-five seconds."
"This is really quite insufferable! Miss Revel, we had better go in."
"Stop!" again cried Captain Drawlock, in a loud voice.
"Stop!" repeated Mrs Ferguson, angrily; "surely we are not slaves."
Newton, who heard what was passing, could not repress his laughter.
"Indeed, I am sure there must be some mistake, Mrs Ferguson," observed
Isabel. "Wait a little."
"Forty-six minutes, thirty seconds," again read off the captain.
"Capital sights both! but the sun is behind that dark cloud, and we
shall have no more of his presence."
"Nor of ours, I assure you, sir," said Mrs Ferguson, rising, as Captain
Drawlock walked from the gangway to the capstern.
"Why, my dear madam, what is the matter?"
"We have not been accustomed to such peremptory language, sir. It may
be the custom on board ship to holla `stop' to ladies when they address
you, or express a wish to leave the deck."
"My dearest madam, I do assure you, upon my honour, that you are under a
mistake. I ordered Mr Forster to stop, not you."
"Mr Forster!" replied the lady; "why, he was standing still the whole
time!"
It was not until the whole system of taking sights for chronometers had
been satisfactorily explained that the lady recovered her good-humour.
While the captain was thus employed with Mrs Ferguson, Newton, although
it was not necessary, explained the mystery to Miss Revel, who, with
Mrs Ferguson, soon after quitted the deck.
The sights taken proved the ship to be to the eastward of her reckoning.
The other ships in company had made the same discovery, and the course
was altered one quarter of a point. In two days they dropped their
anchor in Funchal Roads.
But I must for a little while recross the Bay of Biscay, and with my
reader look into the chambers of Mr John Forster.
Look
Upon this child I saved her, must not leave
Her life to chance; but point me out some nook
Of safety, where she less may shrink and grieve.
...
This child, who parentless, is therefore mine.
BYRON.
A few minutes after Newton had quitted the chambers of his uncle the
clerk made his appearance, announcing to Mr John Forster that a
gentleman requested to speak to him.
"I asked the gentleman's name, sir," observed the clerk, shutting to the
door, "but he did not choose to give it. He has a little girl with
him."
"Very well, Scratton, the little girl cannot concern me," replied the
old lawyer; "ask him to walk in;"--and he again conned over the brief,
not choosing to lose the minute which might elapse before he was again
to be interrupted. The door was reopened, and Edward Forster, with
Amber holding him by the hand, entered the room.
"Your servant, sir. Scratton, a chair--two chairs, Scratton. I beg
your pardon, young lady."
When the clerk had retired, Mr John Forster commenced as usual. "Now,
sir, may I request the favour of asking your business with me?"
"You do not recollect me; nor am I surprised at it, as it is fifteen
years since we last met. Time and suffering, which have worn me to a
skeleton, have also worn out the remembrance of a brother. I am Edward
Forster."
"Edward Forster!--humph! Well, I did not recollect you; but I'm very
glad to see you, brother. Very strange never have heard of one of my
family for years, and now they all turn up at once! No sooner get rid
of one than up starts another. Nicholas came from the Lord knows where,
the other day."
Edward Forster, who was better acquainted with his brother's character
than Newton, took no notice of the abruptness of his remarks, but
replied:--
"Nicholas! Is he then alive? I shall be delighted to see him."
"Humph!" replied John, "I was delighted to get rid of him. Take care of
your watch or spectacles when you meet him."
"Indeed, brother! I trust he is not such a character."
"But he is a character, I can tell you; not what you suppose--he's
honest enough. Let me see if my memory serves me, brother Edward, we
last met when you were passing through London on your way to ---, having
been invalided, and having obtained a pension of forty pounds per annum
for a severe wound received in action. And pray, brother, where have
you been ever since?"
"At the same spot, from which I probably never should have been induced
to remove, had it not been for the sake of this little girl who is now
with me."
"And pray who may be that little girl? is she your daughter?"
"Only by adoption."
"Humph, brother! for a half-pay lieutenant that appears rather an
expensive whim!--bad enough to maintain children of our own begetting."
"You say true," replied Edward; "but if in this instance I have incurred
an expense and responsibility, it must be considered to be more my
misfortune than my fault." Edward Forster then entered into the
particulars connected with Amber's rescue. "You must acknowledge,
brother John," observed Edward, as he closed his narrative, "that I
could not well have acted otherwise; you would not have yourself."
"Humph! I don't know that; but this I do know, that you had better have
stayed at home!"
"Perhaps so, considering the forlorn prospects of the child; but we must
not judge. The same Providence which willed that she should be so
miraculously saved, also willed that I should be her protector;--why
otherwise did the dog lay her at my feet?"
"Because it had been taught to `fetch and carry,' I suppose: but,
however, brother Edward, I have no right to question your conduct. If
the girl is as good as she is pretty, why all the better for her; but,
as I am rather busy, let me ask if you have any more to say to me?"
"I have, John; and the discourse we have had is preliminary. I am here
with a child, forced upon me I may say, but still as dear to me as if
she were mine own. You must be aware that I have nothing but my pension
and half-pay to subsist upon. I can save nothing. My health is
undermined and my life precarious. Last winter I never expected to quit
my bed again and, as I lay in it, the thought naturally occurred of the
forlorn and helpless state in which this poor little girl would be in
case of my decease. In a lonely cottage,--without money--without family
or friends to apply to--without any one near her being made acquainted
with her unfortunate history. What would have become of her? It was
this reflection which determined me, if my life was spared, as soon as
my health would permit, to come to you, the only relative I was certain
of still having in the world, that I might acquaint you with her
existence, and, with her history, confide to you the few articles of
dress which she wore when rescued, and which may eventually lead to her
recognition:--a case of extreme doubt and difficulty, I grant; but the
ways of Providence are mysterious, and her return to the arms of her
friends will not be more wonderful than her preservation on that
dreadful night. Brother! I never have applied to you in my own behalf,
although conscious how ample are your means--and I never will; but I do
now plead in favour of this dear child. Worn out as I am, my pilgrimage
on earth can be but short; and if you would smooth the pillow of a dying
brother, promise him now that you will extend your bounty to this poor
orphan, when I'm no more!"
Edward Forster's voice was tremulous at the close of his appeal, and his
brother appeared to be affected. There was a silence of a minute, when
the customary "humph!" was ejaculated, and John Forster then continued:
"A very foolish business, brother--very foolish indeed. When Nicholas
and his son came here the other day and applied to me--why, it was all
very well there was relationship;--but really, to put another man's
child upon me!"
"Not while it pleases Heaven to spare _my_ life, brother."
"`May you live a thousand years!' then, as the Spanish say; but,
however, brother Edward, as you say, the poor thing must not starve; so,
if I am to take care of a child of another man's begetting, as soon as
you are dead, I can only say, it will very much increase my sorrow at
your loss. Come here, little one: What's your name?"
"Amber."
"Amber! who the devil gave you that fool's name?"
"I did, brother," replied Edward, "I thought it appropriate."
"Humph! really can't see why. Why did you not call her Sukey, or some
name fit for a Christian? Amber! Amber's a gum, is it not? Stop,
let's see what Johnson says."
The lawyer went to a case of books which were in the next room, and
returned with a quarto.
"Now," said he, seating himself; "AG--AL--AM--Ambassador--Ambassadress--
Amber! humph! here it is, `A yellow transparent substance of a gummous
or bituminous consistence, but of a resinous taste, and a smell like oil
of turpentine; chiefly found in the Baltic sea or the coast of Prussia.'
Humph! `Some have imagined it to consist of the tears of birds; others
the'--humph!--`of a beast; others the scum of the Lake Cephesis, near
the Atlantic; others a congelation in some fountains, where it is found
swimming like pitch.' Really, brother," continued the lawyer, fixing
his eyes on the little girl, and shutting the book, "I can't see the
analogy."
"Be her godfather, my dear brother, and call her any name you please."
"Humph!"
"Pray, papa," said Amber, turning to Edward Forster, "what's the meaning
of humph?"
"Humph!" repeated the lawyer, looking hard at Amber.
"It implies yes or no, as it may be," replied Edward Forster, smiling.
"I never heard any one say it before, papa. You're not angry with me,
sir?" continued Amber, turning round to John Forster.
"No, not angry, little girl; but I'm too busy to talk to you--or indeed
with you, brother Edward. Have you any thing more to say?"
"Nothing, my dear brother, if I have your promise."
"Well, you have it; but what am I to do with her, God only knows! I
wish you had kept better hours. You mentioned some clothes which might
identify her to her relations; pray let me have them, for I shall have
the greatest pleasure in restoring her to them, as soon as possible,
after she is once in my hands."
"Here they are, brother," replied Edward, taking a small packet from his
coat-pocket: "you had better take charge of them now; and may God bless
you for having relieved my mind from so heavy a load!"
"Humph! by taking it on my own shoulders," muttered John, as he walked
to the iron safe, to deposit the packet of linen; then returning to the
table, "Have you any thing more to say, brother?"
"Only to ask you where I may find my brother Nicholas?"
"That I can't tell; my nephew told me somewhere down the river; but,
it's a long way from here to the Nore. Nephew's a fine lad; I sent him
off to the East Indies."
"I am sorry then that I have no chance of seeing him:--but you are busy,
brother?"
"I have told you so three times, as plain as I could speak?"
"I will no longer trespass on your time. We return home to-morrow
morning; and, as I cannot expect ever to see you again, God bless you,
my dear John! and farewell, I am afraid I may say, in this world at
least, farewell for ever!"
Edward held out his hand to his brother. It was taken with considerable
emotion. "Farewell, brother, farewell!--I'll not forget."
"Good-bye, sir," said Amber, going close up to John Forster.
"Good-bye, my little girl," replied he, looking earnestly in her face;
and then, as if thawing towards her, as he scanned her beautiful and
expressive features, removing his spectacles and kissing her,
"Good-bye."
"Oh! papa," cried Amber, as she went out of the room, "he kissed me!"
"Humph!" said John Forster, as the door closed upon them.
The spectacles were put on, and the reading of the brief immediately
continued.