My friend could see me, without
difficulty, owing to his stature, while I saw the glistening eyes of
Lucy, riveted on my face, as leaning on her father's knee, she bent
her graceful form forward, in absorbed attention.
"We expected you; we have not been taken _altogether_ by
surprise!" exclaimed good Mr. Hardinge, clapping his hand on my
shoulder, as if to say he could now begin to treat me like a man. "I
consented to come down, just at this moment, because the last Canton
ship that arrived brought the intelligence that the Crisis was to sail
in ten days."
"And you may judge of our surprise," said Rupert, "when we read the
report in the papers, 'The Crisis, _Captain Wallingford_.'"
"I supposed my letters from the island had prepared you for this," I
observed.
"In them, you spoke of Mr. Marble, and I naturally concluded, when it
came to the pinch, the man would resume the command, and bring the
ship home. Duty to the owners would be apt to induce him."
"He did not," I answered, a little proudly perhaps, forgetting poor
Marble's probable situation, for an instant, in my own vanity.
"Mr. Marble understood well, that if I knew nothing else, I knew how
to take care of a ship."
"So it seems, my dear boy, indeed, so it doth seem!" said
Mr. Hardinge, kindly. "I hear from all quarters, you conduct
commended; and the recovery of the vessel from the French, was really
worthy of Truxtun himself.
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