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Show that meeting, so far in the future, between be-tween Giles and Overton. Youth has no future, as it has no past. Naturally, I did not see much of my great-uncle, the admiral. He was a very strict disciplinarian, probably because be-cause he was used to discipline at home, and busied himself more with the conduct of the ship than the captain cap-tain liked. The other midshipmen alleged al-leged that there was no love lost between be-tween Capt. Guilford and the admiral, and the captain had been heard to say that having an admiral on board was like having a mother-in-law in the house. Nevertheless, Sir Peter was a fine seaman, and the gunroom joke was that he knew how to command, from having learned how to obey under un-der Lady Hawkshaw's iron rule. One day the admiral's steward brought me a message. The admiral's compliments, and would I dine in the great cabin at five o'clock that day? I was frightened out of a year's growth by the invitation, but of course I responded that I should be most happy. hap-py. This, like my professed anxiety to "meet the French, was a great lie. At five oclock I presented myself, trembling in every limb. The first thing I noted in the cabin was a large portrait of Lady Hawkshaw as a young woman. She must have been very handsome. Sir Peter gave me two fingers, and turning to the steward, said: "Soup!' Soup was brought. We were mostly out of fresh vegetables then, and it was pea soup, such as we had in the cockpit. Sir Peter grumbled a little at it, and it was soon removed and a leg of pork brought on; a pig had been killed that day. "Aha!" sniffed Sir Peter, delightedly. delighted-ly. "This is fine. Nephew, you have no pig in the gunroom to-day." . Which was true; and Sir Peter helped me liberally, and proceeded to do the same by himself. The steward, stew-ard, however, said respectfully. "Excuse me, Sir Peter, but in the interview in-terview 1 had the honor , to have with Lady Hawkshaw before sailing, sir, she particularly desired me to request you not to eat pork, as it always disagreed dis-agreed with you." "Wh-wh-what! " roared Sir Peter. "I am only repeating Lady Hawk-shaw's Hawk-shaw's message, sir," humbly responded re-sponded the man; but I thought I saw, under all his humility, a sly kind of defiance. Sir Peter had no fear of either round, grape, or double-headed shot, and was indifferent to musketry fire. Likewise, it was commonly said of him in the service that if he were ordered to attack hell itself, he would at her age! And Lady Arabella is a very beautiful young lady." Sir Peter grinned like a rat-trap at this awkward compliment, and re j marked: "Yes, yes, Arabella is like my lady, except not half so handsome. Egad, when I married Lady Hawkshaw. 1 had to cut my wray, literally with my sword, through the body-guard of gen tlemen who wanted her. And as foi her relations well, she defied 'em, that's all." I tried, - with all the little art 1 possessed, to get some information concerning Arabella out of Sir Peter; ; but beyond telling me what I 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. But even that seemed to ; show the great gulf between us. Would she, with her beauty and her title, condescend con-descend to a midshipman somewhat younger than herself, and penniless? I doubted it, though I was, in general, of a sanguine nature. I found Sir Peter unbent as the decanters de-canters grew empty, although I would not lor a moment imply that he was excessive in his drinking. Only, the mellow glow which pervades an Eng-i Eng-i lish gentleman after a few glasses of i good port enveloped him. He asked i me if I was glad I had joined the i service to which I 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 admirable advice. I left him with a feeling that I had a friend in that excellent seaman, honest gentleman, gentle-man, and odd fish, Admiral Sir Peter Hawkshaw. When I went below, I told my messmates mess-mates all that had occurred, rather exaggerating Sir Peter's attentions to me, as midshipmen will. Then privately private-ly I confided to Giles Vernon. I told what little I had found out concerning concern-ing the star of my soul, as I called Arabella, to which Giles responded by a long-drawn-out "Ph-ew!" I implored him, if he knew any officer of-ficer 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, as I sat on a locker, studying my theorems, Giles came up. "Dickey," said he, "Mr. Buxton knows the divine Arabella. She has a fortune of 30,000, and so has the dove-eyed little Daphme, all inherited from their granddad, a rich Bombay merchant. It seems that Lady Arabella's Ara-bella's mother bought a coronet with her money, and it turned out a poor bargain. However, the earl did .no live long enough to ruin his father-in law; and little Daphne's parents, too died young, so the old Bombay mai left the girls his fortune, and mp.de Sir Peter their guardian, and thai means, of course, that Polly Hawkshaw Hawk-shaw is their guardian. Mr. Buxton says he would' like to see the fortune-hunter fortune-hunter who can rob Polly of those two damsels. For Polly says rank and lineage are not everything. She herself, her-self, you know, dates back to the Saxon Heptarchy, though she did marry the son of your drysalting greatgrandfather. 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 a drysalting family to please herself, or to displease her relations, I don't knov; which. I should say, though, if y are honest and deserving, and nr , your book, and get a good word fr w the chaplain, you will probably c c day be the husband of little Daph if but not of Lady Arabella; no ms shall marry her while I live, that ye ,may be sure of; but when I marry hei you may be side-boy at my wedding.' I thought this speech very cruel oi Giles Vernon, and believed that he did not know what true love was, else he could not so trifle with my feelings, although there was an echo of earnestness earnest-ness in his intimation that he would kill any man who aspired to marry Lady Arabella. We were three weeks in the Bay of Biscay, thrashing to windward under topgallant sails, and expecting daily and hourly to run across a Frenchman. French-man. We were hoping for it, because we found the Ajax to be a very weath-erly weath-erly ship and fast for her class; and both Capt. Guilford and Sir Peter, who had sailed in her before, knew exactly ex-actly how to handle her. And we were to have our wish. For, one evening even-ing toward suntset, we sighted a French ship of the line off our beam; and by the time e had made her-out, 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. (TO BE CONTINUED.) THE LOVES of the LADY ARABELLA By MOLLY ELLIOT SEA WELL ji A (Copyright, 1900, Bobbs-MerrlU Co.) SYNOPSIS. At 14 years of age Admiral Sir Peter Hawkshaw's nephew fell deeply in love at first sight with Lady Arabella Stor-mont, Stor-mont, who spurned his attentions. The lad, an orphan, was given a berth as midshipman mid-shipman on the Ajax by his uncle. Giles i Vernon, nephew of Sir Thomas Vernon, became the hoy's pal. They attended a theater where Hawkshaw's nephew saw Lady Arabella. Vernon met Philip Overton, Over-ton, next in line for Sir Thomas Vernon's estate. They started a duel which was interrupted. in-terrupted. Vernon, Overton and Hawkshaw's Hawk-shaw's nephew found themselves attracted attract-ed by pretty Lady Arabella. CHAPTER II. Continued. "In a week, perhaps; possibly not for two weeks." And the surgeon departed. de-parted. As soon as he was out of the room, Giles sent for pen and paper, and with the most painful effort, guiding his right hand by his left, managed :to Indite the following epistle to Capt. Overton: Pheenix Inn, Portsmouth, Friday. "Dear Sir: "This is to inform you that I met with a most unfortnit axerdent while coming down on the coach. My friend and mess-mate, mess-mate, the infant admiral which you saw with me, had read the story of Gehu in the Bible or Horaar, I forget which, and aspired to drive four horses. Which he did, with the result that my right arm was rentched out of place, and the rascally rascal-ly doctor who sett it says I cannot use it for some days. This is most unfortnit, as it delays the pleasure we antissipated in our meeting. You will here from me as soon as I am recovered. The only thing witch disturbs me is that if we both go to Davy Jones', twil please that old cur-mudgin. cur-mudgin. Sir Thomas Vernon, bad luck to him. Believe me, sir, "Your much obliged and "Most obedient servant, "GILES VERNON, "Mid. on H. M. S. Ajax." Giles gave me this read, and I pointed out several mistakes he had made in spelling, although the tone of the letter was gentlemanlike, ; everything was that Giles did. With great vexation and some difficulty, he added a postscript. "P. S. Please excuse speling as my arm 1s very paneful. G. V." At that moment a marine from the Ajax bounced, breathless and in great excitement, into the room. "We are to sail with the tide, tonight, to-night, sir!" he said. "The admiral passed the messenger on the road; the jib is loose, and the blue peter flying" fly-ing" and out he ran, to notify the other absentees. Giles seized the paper, and added laboriously: "P. S. No. 2. I am just enformed that the Blue Peter is flying from the Ajax. and that, my dear sir, signifies that we are about to sail. Our meeting must be postponed, for god knose when we will -eat fresh butter again. But you shall hear from me. G. V." And that night we sailed with the tide. CHAPTER III. We were ordered to join Sir John Jervis' fleet In the Mediterranean without the loss of a day, and, when the tide served at nine o'clock that night, Sir Peter Hawkshaw was ready for it. The officers, who knew Sir Peter's capacity for picking up his anchors at short notice, were generally general-ly prepared, and were but little sur: prised at the sudden departure of the ship. The men, however, are never prepared to go, and the ship was besieged, be-sieged, from the time she showed the blue peter until she set her topsails, by the usual crowd of bumboat women, sailors' wives, tavern-keepers, shop dealers, deal-ers, andull the people with whom Jack trades, and who are loath to part with him for reasons of love or money. Although Al-though all of the stores were on board, there were market supplies to get, and the midshipmen were in the boats constantly con-stantly until the last boat was hoisted in, just as the music called the men to the capstan bars. It was a brilliant moonlight night, a good breeze was blowing, and the Ajax got under way with an unusual spread of sail. As we passed out the narrow entrance into the roads, the wind freshened and the great ship took her majestic way through the fleet, a mountain of canvas can-vas showing from rail to truck. The first few days I was overcome, as it were, with my new life and its duties. Two other midshipmen, junior to myself, my-self, had joined, so I was no longer the exclusive butt of the cockpit. We spent most of our spare time expressing express-ing the greatest longing for a meeting with the French, although for my own part, even while I was bragging the most, I felt a sickness at the heart when 1 imagined a round shot entering enter-ing my vitals. Giles Vernon was still the dearest object of my admiration and affections always excepting that divinely beautiful Lady Arabella. But this was rather the admiration of a glowworm for a star. 1 had no one else to love except Giles, and even a midshipman must love something. I did not much trouble myself about He Turned His Back Every Time Sir Peter Filled His Glass.' stand on until his jib caught fire; but neither time nor distance weakened weak-ened the authority over him of Lady Hawkshaw. Sir Peter glared at the steward and then at the leg of pork, and, suddenly jumping up, seized the dish and threw it, pork and all, out of the stern window. win-dow. As I had secured my portion, I could view this with equanimity. The next dish was spareribs. The steward said nothing, but Sir Peter let it pass with a groan. It seemed to me that everything appetizing in the dinner was passed by Sir Peter, in response re-sponse to a peculiar kind of warning glance from the steward. This man, I heard afterward, had sailed with him many years, and was understood to be an emissary of Lady Hawkshaw's. We had, besides the pea soup and roast pork,'' spareribs, potatoes, turnips, tur-nips, anchovy with sauce, and a custard. cus-tard. Sir Peter, howewr, dined off pea soup and potatoes; but I observed that he was his own master as far as the decanters were concerned, and it occurred to me that he had made a trade with the steward, by which he was allowed this indulgence, as I noticed no-ticed the man turn his back every time Sir Peter filled his glass. Dinner being over, the cloth removed, re-moved, and the steward gone. Sir Peter appeared to be in a somewhat better humor. His first remark was: "So you are fond of the play, sir?" I replied that I had been but once. "The time you went with Giles Vernon. Ver-non. If the coach had broken down between London and Portsmouth, we should have sailed without either one of you." I did not mention that the coach had upset, but merely said that we thought there was no danger of any detention, and that Giles Vernon was in no way responsible for my going to London, as he knew nothing about it until we met the coach door. I was revolving in my mind whether I could venture to ask of the welfar. of the divine Arabella, and suddenly a direct inspiration came to me. I remarked re-marked with blushes and tremors. 1 must admit: "How very like Lady Arabella Stor mont must Lady Hawkshaw have been I |