"
Concerning that there could be no doubt. Glory, as all English officers
know, is no durable stay for the stomach. The urgency of mankind
for victuals may roughly be gauged by the length of the jaw. Captain
Stubbard had jaws of tremendous length, and always carried a bag of
captain's biscuits, to which he was obliged to have recourse in the
height of the hottest engagement. Scudamore had short jaws, well set up,
and powerful, without rapacity. But even these, after twelve hours of
fasting, demanded something better than gunpowder. He could not help
thinking that his host was regarding the condition of affairs very
calmly, until he remembered that the day was Sunday, when no Briton has
any call to be disturbed by any but sacred insistency. At any rate, he
was under orders now, and those orders were entirely to his liking. So
he freshened up his cheerful and simple-minded face, put his sailor-knot
neckcloth askew, as usual, and with some trepidation went down to
dinner.
The young ladies would not have been young women if they had not
received him warmly. Kind Faith, who loved him as a sister might--for
she had long discovered his good qualities--had tears in her beautiful
eyes, as she gave him both hands, and smiled sweetly at his bashfulness.
And even the critical Dolly, who looked so sharply at the outside
of everything, allowed her fair hand to stay well in his, and said
something which was melody to him.
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