"I was, Sir," I answered; all my irritation vanishing in an instant under his kindness of manner; "I was very sorry for it, and will take care it shall not be the case again; but, in fact, I thought of nothing, when I saw human lives in danger."

"Quite right, quite right," he replied; "I should have done the same in your place. I was angry at the time-perhaps rather too much so; but discipline must be maintained, and I did not then know all the circumstances. have since learnt them-for I met-accidentally one day-those whom you saved-and they spoke very handsomely of your conduct."

I

This was said with a degree of hesitation and embarrassment which I should have been at a loss to account for, had not my jealous fancy at once taken fire, and convinced me that it proceeded from the Captain's having not only seen, but fallen in love with the young lady.

The fury that possessed me at this idea, I cannot describe. I was like a hungry wolf from whom the prey had been snatched; the lioness robbed of her young;-anything in short blind with fury and revenge. Evil passions rose in my breast like a whirlwind, and shook my whole

frame. I had no internal principle then to oppose to the violent feelings of my violent nature, but was a perfect slave to them; and nothing but the severe discipline which, happily for me at that moment, the Captain certainly maintained, could have prevented me from some furious outbreak. I could have rushed upon him, strangled him, chucked him through the window, or performed any, or every other prank of absurd insanity and horror.

And all for what? I have often thought of it since. Because the poor man told me he had seen a young girl, whom I could scarcely have been said even to have seen myself; but to whom I chose to fancy I had an exclusive right!

But it is useless to argue these matters. It is not the thing, as it seems, in outward appearance alone, that constitutes the thing as it really is. The feelings on which it falls characterize it. "La chose actuelle, et la chose sensible," are often mightily different things. A note of music, a flower, a sunset, are matters of indifference to some-rapture to some agony to some. Yet it is but one note, one flower, one sunset. Truly, "the heart knoweth its own

bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not with its joy!"

And yet it was not merely that Captain Normanton had seen this object of my imagined love; for had he said freely and openly that he had done so, I should have thought nothing of it, but perhaps been rather gratified at thinking that something might have been said in my favour; but it was his concealing it at first, and then speaking of it with such confusion, that disturbed my mind; and which gave to the whole thing a character of importance in my eyes, which time, alas! proved that it too truly possessed.

I had, however, to answer him; which I did by uttering some unintelligible sounds, about "duty" and "happiness," and so forth; my voice trembling so with suppressed emotion, that I was in terrible fear lest he should observe it. He seemed to make out more of my meaning, however, than I did myself; for he told me "my sentiments did me honour," and that “he should not fail to remember my conduct;" and so dismissed me, nothing loth, to go on shore.