Chapter IV. The Baronet's Son is Considerably Sat Upon.

Miss Julia, to hide her real feelings of mortification at the fall of her hero, began to tease her companion and turn our attention off from herself, for she could not help feeling that we were all delighted, save perhaps her mother, that she should receive such convincing proof that our previously-formed opinion of him was the correct one.

‘What a funk you were in, Miss Grave,’ she laughingly observed, page 14 ‘and I positively heard you say, “Oh, Harry! oh Mr Baker, God help you!”’

‘Julia, pray do not joke about it; it is not right,’ answered the young lady addressed, with a rosy blush on her pale face. ‘When that cruel giant's fist crashed into Mr Baker's face I thought the blow must have knocked him overboard, hanging as he was on the bulwarks. Then it seemed as if the weight of the poor mate would have dragged him over.’

‘Well,’ said Harry, ‘of course I could have guarded the blow, but if I had, the mate would have gone to sea for a certainty. He can't swim, and a man's life is of more consequence than a crack in the face.’

‘So you risked a black eye and grabbed him. Good of you, my boy. I saw it all as I rushed up. The bound you gave to catch him I never saw equalled; you are certainly the hero of the fight. We could not possibly have reached him in time. He owes his life to you,’ said Mr Robinson.

I was anxious to hear how Miss Julia behaved during the struggle.

‘Cannot you return the compliment, Miss Grave, and let us know a little about Miss Robinson's behaviour? Did she preserve her composure all through the trying ordeal?’ I queried.

‘I was too frightened myself to notice her, replied the young lady.

‘Oh, Julia behaved as my daughter should,’ said her mother, stiffly. ‘I only heard her scream once, when a brute of a fellow was striking at her father from behind with a big stick. Then some one, I don't know who, jumped into the crowd and took the blow on his arm, but felled the cowardly wretch with the other hand. You burst into tears then, Julia, and no wonder, when your papa was so nearly killed.’

‘Oh, that was my noble Mr Melton. He saved your life, papa,’ she exclaimed with emotion, and I felt that even that one sentence from her lips was sufficient reward for the very painful contusion I had received.

‘Saved me a nasty knock perhaps, for which many thanks, my boy; but my life isn't so easily disposed of.’

‘Allow me to contradict your statement, Miss Robinson, and award you the credit of saving your father's life (for whatever you may think, sir, I much doubt if that heavy handspike had left much life in you). I heard you scream, Miss Robinson, and turning sharply round, observed, and knocked the fellow down, so it was your scream which saved your father's skull.’

‘No, no, Mr Melton, that won't do. I might have screamed till I was black in the face, and it would have done no good had you not been there to avert the blow. But isn't your arm dreadfully hurt?”

I protested that it was a mere trifle, but the fair lady would examine it, and apply some liniment to it.

Great powers! what a delicious thrill every touch of her soft hand sent through me! and she was by no means sparing of them. I felt that I would enjoy a mutiny every day if this was the result.

Mr Robinson's shout of, Now, boys, it's time we went below and got the war-paint off, for tea must be nearly ready,’ made us take a look at our attire, and we immediately saw the necessity. The sailors were perfectly quiet. and I may here remark that they page 15 troubled us no more, though we deemed it advisable to form watches and remain on guard all night.

At tea Grosvenor appeared, and was taking his usual place next to Miss Julia as if nothing had happened.

‘Excuse me sir,’ she remarked, with a certain amount of stiffness, ‘will you allow Mr Melton to occupy that seat? I wish to converse with him on a matter of which you are totally ignorant.’

‘I do not understand you, Miss Robinson. I believe my conversational powers are at least equal to Mr Melton's. No one ever yet informed me that I was ignorant on any subject.’

‘Well, I tell you so now. You are ignorant of the subject ot the behaviour of a gentleman. I always understood that it was ungentlemanly to force yourself on a lady's society when she had requested you to leave her.’

He complied to her request with a very bad grace, the more especially as some one else having taken my usual seat, he had to go to the bottom of the table, amid much laughter and chaff at his expense. If looks went for anything, the one he gave me meant murder. I need hardly say that I was raised to the seventh heaven of happiness as I took my seat next Miss Julia, and we laughed and chatted about the battle in a manner which made Grosvenor pale with fury.

It did not improve matters when Mr Robinson, in his bluff manner, shouted down the table, ‘Hallo, Grosvenor, got to take a back seat, eh? None but the brave deserve the fair. Joking apart, though, have you recovered yet? I heard you were ill.

‘Yes, thank you, my headaches, fortunately, go off as suddenly as they come on.’

‘So I should imagine. They must be very severe, too, for surely no young man of your age would desert ladies in danger for a paltry headache.

Our friend began to feel even more uncomfortable, but he strove to make a fair show. ‘Well, sir, even if I had not been ill, I would not have risked my life in a struggle with a lot of drunken sailors, brought on by the mismanagement of a cowardly captain. It's all very well for young fellows like Melton and the rest of them,’ and he gave me another savage look. ‘It doesn't matter if they are knocked over, but gentlemen who have an old family name and title to keep up should avoid such unseemly brawls.’ Then suddenly remembering himself he added, ‘I saw you going, sir, but doubtless you went to show them what to do that is a different thing.

‘Yea, I did go to show them what to do, and they did it nobly, too.’

‘Well, sir, I can't agree with you that there is any nobleness in knocking about a lot of besotted wretches like them. I own, as I said before, that no one can think the worse of fellows like our friends here, but there's a difference between them and the like of you or me, sir.’

We saw it coming, though he did not, and it came in a tone expressive of the most profound contempt for the subject of it. We all felt our case was in good hands, and held our peace.

‘Yes, there is a difference between them and you, and, thank Heaven, a great one. It is this: they are fine noble fellows, who would not see their fellow creatures thrown overboard, or their lady friends at the mercy of a lot of drunken savages, without page 16 doing their utmost to save them. But you! you mean, skulking, cowardly hound, would crawl off to your cabin with a headache, forsooth! By God! sir, if I were you I'd never show myself amongst men, but try to get a billet in an Old Woman's Refuge, that is, if they'd have you, which I very much doubt?

I never saw Mr Robinson so much heated before, and poor Grosvenor positively quailed before the torrent of his invective, although he made a weak attempt at a response—‘Sir, you shall answer for this. I have witnesses.’

‘Witnesses! yes, you certainly have witnesses to your infernal cowardice, but that's to your shame, and nothing to do with me.’

Had not Mrs Robinson, who had been ineffectually signalling to him for some time, requested him to take her to her cabin, as she felt very unwell, he would not have stopped here.

Harry and I occupied the next cabin to the Robinsons, and we inferred from what we overheard through the partition, owing to the gentleman's voice being raised in the warmth of the dispute, that he was getting a curtain lecture on his folly in giving Grosvenor a bit of his mind; yet it would seem from the tenor of his answers that he did not come off second best. A dog like that a desirable son-in-law! Well, you women have taste! Pshaw, his very name sickens me. Go to sleep, do!’

However, it would appear her admonitions had some slight effect, for on Grosvenor—sneaking cur that he was—addressing him the next day as if nothing had happened, to my surprise, he took the trouble to answer him, though as curtly as possible. Julia followed her father's example, and made her conversation with him as brief as was consistent with the barest politeness.

The captain and mate were but little the worse for this rough handling, but did not appear in the saloon that evening. The next day the men turned up to work, but they performed their duties in a very insolent, surly way, save when the second mate recovered sufficiently to take his watch again. The lesson we had given them fortunately prevented any further mutinous action on their part, for that was the only punishment they received. The captain, in his irresolute way, talked largely about what he should do to them when he arrived in Auckland, but on arriving there he was only too glad when they all bolted and left him, although they had been, as usual, engaged for the return voyage.

The week after Grosvenor's downfall was the happiest I had yet spent on board. My divinity, I believe, positively adored me for that space of time; then, capricious divinity that she was, she must needs swing round, and endeavour to get poor Harry under her sway again. He had been apparently making great headway in Miss Grave's estimation during the week; still, with the quick eye of jealousy, I had noted him often casting far more amorous glances at Miss Julia than those with which he favoured her companion. This, indeed, was the fact, for he came at once to her nod, and I believe I suffered more during the next few days than I had done when Grosvenor was the favoured one. I thought it very hard that my friend could not have been content with Miss Grave, who I believed really did care for him. This continued till nearly the end of the voyage, first one being the recipient of the lady's favours, then the other, and we were alternately either in the heaven of bliss or the other place of torment. I had a little more reason in my page 17 madness than poor Harry, and began at last to think that this seesawing business was not good enough. Fool that I was not to have thought so before; it would have saved me much misery. In fact, I now saw that my infatuation had been that of the senses, not the pure, deep, lasting love of the heart, a sentiment which I did not then understand.

Some young ladies would have carried on the two flirtations, for that is of course what they amounted to, as far as she was concerned, at the same time. This, however, was not my lady's style. She made a point of teasing the dethroned one to the utmost of his endurance for the joint amusement of herself and her chosen companion. On one occasion, while in the former capacity, I gave her as good as I got. She had been baiting me most unmercifully for Harry's delectation, when on my making some stupid mistake in a more stupid game of cards, to carry on some previous joke she scornfully exclaimed, referring to me, ‘When will the old man learn wisdom?’ ‘Not out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,’ was my apt retort. As nothing annoyed her more than being considered a child, this reply had the effect of making her desperately angry, and she was a little more careful what she said to me for some time after.

Harry, of course, remained master of the field till we arrived at our destination, and I believe they were secretly engaged. He crowed over me so absurdly that I positively hated the fellow. Grosvenor had regained a small portion of her favour, but not enough to interfere with Harry. Mrs Robinson had been again compelled through ill-health to keep her cabin. Her husband could not but have noticed our little love affairs, but had considered it all boy and girl nonsense that we should, no doubt, forget on landing. He was therefore intensely astonished when, just before leaving the ship, Harry asked for a short interview, and informed him of his intentions. He was boisterous, to say the least.

‘What business have you to talk of love or marriage with my daughter?’ he queried. ‘You have no means to keep a wife, and you may both of you change your minds fifty times before you have. It's ridiculous!’

‘I know I have no means now, sir, but I'll soon make my fortune in the colonies.’

‘Then will be the time to come and ask for her, Harry, my boy, if you are still of the same mind. I had thought of taking you as a cadet on my run, but it's useless if you are in such a hurry to make your pile.’

Harry was highly indignant, as he always was at any opposition to his plans, and even refused to take letters of introduction, which the kind old gentleman offered him, to friends who might be useful to him.

‘I'll show the old beggar that I can be independent of him, said to me, ‘barring the hundred pounds he lent me, which he shall have back with interest the moment I can pay it. I don't want his dirty money as a friendly loan, and that I'll show him.’

I tried to explain to Harry that Robinson was right, and that we were both in a position which made it an insult to ask a man for his daughter, but he could not see it.