"She gets made such a fuss of, it's no wonder," said Mrs. Kingdom, with a
satisfied smile. "I never heard of a girl getting as much attention as
she does; it's a wonder her head isn't turned."

"Eh!" said the startled captain; "she'd better not let me see anything of
it."

"Just so," said Mrs. Kingdom.

The captain dwelt on these words and kept his eyes open, and, owing to
his daughter's benevolent efforts on his behalf, had them fully occupied.
He went to sea firmly convinced that she would do something foolish in
the matrimonial line, the glowing terms in which he had overheard her
describing the charms of the new postman to Mrs. Kingdom filling him with
the direst forebodings.

It was his last voyage. An unexpected windfall from an almost forgotten
uncle and his own investments had placed him in a position of modest
comfort, and just before Miss Nugent reached her twentieth birthday he
resolved to spend his declining days ashore and give her those advantages
of parental attention from which she had been so long debarred.

Mr. Wilks, to the inconsolable grief of his ship-mates, left with him.
He had been for nearly a couple of years in receipt of an annuity
purchased for him under the will of his mother, and his defection left a
gap never to be filled among comrades who had for some time regarded him
in the light of an improved drinking fountain.