"Lucy--is it--_can_ it be possible!--It is then _you_, I
thought so gloriously beautiful, and that without knowing you, too."
I take it for granted, had I studied a week, I should not have
composed a more grateful salutation than this, which burst forth in a
way that set all the usual restraints of manners at defiance. Of
course, I felt bound to go through with the matter as prosperously as
I had commenced, and in spite of the publicity of the place, in spite
of half a dozen persons, who heard what passed, and had turned,
smiling, to see what would come next, in spite of the grave-looking
gentleman who had so lately been all vivacity and gaiety, I advanced,
folded the dear girl to my heart, and gave her such a kiss, as I'll
take upon myself to say, she had never before received. Sailors,
usually, do not perform such things by halves, and I never was more in
earnest in my life. Such a salutation, from a young fellow who stood
rather more than six feet in his stockings, had a pair of whiskers
that had come all the way from the Pacific with very little trimming,
and who possessed a manliness about him of which mere walking up and
down Broadway would have robbed a young Hercules, had the effect to
cover poor Lucy with blushes and confusion.
"There--that will do, Miles," she said, struggling to get free--"a
truce, I pray you.
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