really« -
    »I am conscious, Mr. Taffril, how little I am entitled to make my present
request, but the urgency of circumstances hardly leaves me an alternative.«
    »Permit me to ask you one question,« asked the sailor; - is there anything
of which you are ashamed in the circumstances which you have declined to
communicate.«
    »Upon my honour, no; there is nothing but what, in a very short time, I
trust I may publish to the whole world.«
    »I hope the mystery arises from no false shame at the lowness of your
friends perhaps, or connections?«
    »No, on my word,« replied Lovel.
    »I have little sympathy for that folly,« said Taffril - »indeed I cannot be
supposed to have any; for, speaking of my relations, I may be said to have come
myself from before the mast, and I believe I shall very soon form a connection,
which the world will think low enough, with a very amiable girl, to whom I have
been attached since we were next-door neighbours, at a time when I little
thought of the good fortune which has brought me forward in the service.«
    »I assure you, Mr. Taffril,« replied Lovel, »whatever were the rank of my
parents, I should never think of concealing it from a spirit of petty pride. But
I am so situated at present, that I cannot enter on the subject of my family
with any propriety.«
    »It is quite enough,« said the honest sailor - »give me your hand; I'll see
you as well through this business as I can, though it is but an unpleasant one
after all - But what of that? our own honour has the next call on us after our
country; - you are a lad of spirit, and I own I think Mr. Hector M'Intyre, with
his long pedigree and his airs of family, very much of a jackanapes. His father
was a soldier of fortune as I am a sailor - he himself, I suppose, is little
better, unless just as his uncle pleases; and whether one pursues fortune by
land, or sea, makes no great difference, I should fancy.«
    »None in the universe, certainly,« answered Lovel.
    »Well,« said his new ally, »we will dine together and arrange matters for
this rencounter. I hope you understand the use of the weapon?«
    »Not particularly,« Lovel replied.
    »I am sorry for that -