charm. Then there was Bess, in Kingston, the relict of a customs
official, Captain Paul relating with ingenuous gusto a midnight brush
with a lieutenant of his Majesty, in which the fair widow figured, and
showed her preference, too. But his adoration for the ladies of the more
northern colonies, he would have me to understand, was unbounded. For
example, Miss Arabella Pope of Norfolk, in Virginia,--and did I know her?
No, I had not that pleasure, though I assured him the Popes of Virginia
were famed. Miss Pope danced divinely as any sylph, and the very memory
of her tripping at the Norfolk Assembly roused the captain to such a
pitch of enthusiasm as I had never seen in him. Marvellous to say, his
own words failed him, and he had recourse to the poets:
"Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out,
As if they feared the light;
But, oh, she dances such a way!
No sun upon an Easter-day
Is half so fine a sight."
The lines, he told me, were Sir John Suckling's; and he gave them
standing, in excellent voice and elegant gesture.
He was in particular partial to the poets, could quote at will from Gay
and Thomson and Goldsmith and Gray, and even from Shakespeare, much to my
own astonishment and humiliation. Saving only Dr. Courtenay of Annapolis
I had never met his equal for versatility of speech and command of fine
language; and, having heard that he had been at sea since the age of
twelve, I made bold to ask him at what school he had got his knowledge.
"At none, Richard," he answered with pride, "saving the rudiments at the
Parish School at Kirkbean. Why, sir, I hold it to be within every man's
province to make himself what he will, and I early recognized in Learning
the only guide for such as me. I may say that I married her for the
furtherance of my fortunes, and have come to love her for her own sake.
Many and many the 'tween-watch have I passed in a coil of rope in the
tops, a volume of the classics in my hand. And 'my happiest days, when
not at sea, have been spent in my brother William's little library. He
hath a modest estate near Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and none holds
higher than he the worth of an education. Ah, Richard," he added, with a
certain sadness, "I fear you little know the value of that which hath
been so lavishly bestowed upon you. There is no creation in the world to
equal your fine gentleman!"
It struck me indeed as strange that a man of his powers should set store
by such trumpery, and, too, that these notions had not impaired his
ability as a seaman. I did not reply. He gave no heed, however, but
drew from a case a number of odes and compositions, which he told me were
his own. They were addressed to various of his enamouritas, abounded in
orrery, and were all, I make no doubt, incredibly fine, tho' not so much
as one sticks in my mind. To speak truth I listened with a very ill
grace, longing the while to be on deck, for we were about to sight the
Isle of Man. The wine and the air of the cabin had made my eyes heavy.
But presently, when he had run through with some dozen or more, he put
them by, and with a quick motion got from his chair, a light coming into
his dark eyes that startled me to attention. And I forgot the merchant
captain, and seemed to be looking forward into the years.
"Mark you, Richard," said he, "mark well when I say that my time will
come, and a day when the best of them will bow to me. And every ell of