“The youngest is comely enough to have been born in my dominions,” said the gallant Sovereign of the Sea; “but no one can refuse to answer a hail that comes straight from the mouth of Old Neptune; so, if it makes no great difference in your Honour’s reckoning, I will just beg the young woman to do her own talking.”  Then, without paying the least attention to the angry glance that shot from the eye of Wilder, the sturdy representative of the God addressed himself directly to Gertrude.  “If, as report goes of you, my pretty damsel, you have seen blue water before this passage, you may be able to recollect the name of the vessel, and some other small particulars of the run?”

The face of our heroine changed its colour from red to pale, as rapidly, and as glowingly, as the evening sky flushes, and returns to its pearl-like loveliness; but she kept down her feelings sufficiently to answer, with an air of entire self-possession,—­

“Were I to enter into all these little particulars, it would detain you from more worthy subjects.  Perhaps this certificate will convince you that I am no novice on the sea.”  As she spoke, a guinea fell from her white hand into the broad and extended palm of her interrogator.

“I can only account for my not remembering your Ladyship, by the great extent and heavy nature of my business,” returned the audacious freebooter bowing with an air of rude politeness as he pocketed the offering.  “Had I looked into my books before I came aboard this here ship, I should have seen through the mistake at once; for I now remember that I ordered one of my limners to take your pretty face, in order that I might show it to my wife at home.  The fellow did it well enough, in the shell of an East-India oyster; I will have a copy set in coral, and sent to your husband, whenever you may see fit to choose one.”

Then, repeating his bow, with a scrape of the foot, he turned to the governess, in order to continue his examination.

“And you, Madam.” he said, “is this the first rime you have ever come into my dominions, or not?”

“Neither the first, nor the twentieth; I have often seen your Majesty before.”

“An old acquaintance!  In what latitude might it be that we first fell in with each other?”

“I believe I first enjoyed that honour, quite thirty years since, under the Equator.”

“Ay, ay, I’m often there, looking out for India-men and your homeward-bound Brazil traders.  I boarded a particularly great number that very season but can’t say I remember your countenance.”

“I fear that thirty years have made some changes in it,” returned the governess, with a smile, which, though mournful, was far too dignified in its melancholy to induce the suspicion that she regretted a loss so vain as that of her personal charms.  “I was in a vessel of the King, and one that was a little remarkable by its size, since it was of three decks.”