"
"This is new to me, Clinch," returned the captain, with interest. "One
so seldom thinks of a master's-mate marrying, that the idea of your
being in that way has never crossed my mind, except in the manner of
a joke."
"Master's-mates _have_ married, Captain Cuffe, and they have ended in
being very miserable. But Jane, as well as myself, has made up her mind
to live single, unless we can see brighter prospects before us than what
my present hopes afford."
"Is it quite right, Jack, to keep a poor young woman towing along in
this uncertainty, during the period of life when her chances for making
a good connection are the best?"
Clinch stared at his commander until his eyes filled with tears. The
glass had not touched his lips since the conversation took its present
direction; and the usual hard settled character of his face was becoming
expressive once more with human emotions.
"It's not my fault, Captain Cuffe," he answered, in a low voice; "it's
now quite six years since I insisted on her giving me up; but she
wouldn't hear of the thing. A very respectable attorney wished to have
her, and I even prayed her to accept his offer; and the only unkind
glance I ever got from her eye, was when she heard me make a request
that she told me sounded impiously almost to her ears. She would be a
sailor's wife or die a maid."
"The girl has unfortunately got some romantic notions concerning the
profession, Clinch, and they are ever the hardest to be convinced of
what is for their own good.
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