"If the two duties are compatible, the greater the reason why a commander
should felicitate himself that he may be of service to so many. You are
bound to the Jersey Highlands, Mr. Van Beverout?"

"I am bound to a comfortable and very private abode, called the Lust in
Rust, Captain Cornelius Van Cuyler Ludlow."

The young man bit his lip, and his healthful but brown cheek flushed a
deeper red than common, though he preserved his composure.

"And I am bound to sea," he soon said. "The wind is getting fresh, and
your boat, which I see, at this moment, standing in for the islands, will
find it difficult to make way against its force. The Coquette's anchor
will be aweigh, in twenty minutes; and I shall find two hours of an ebbing
tide, and a top-gallant breeze, but too short a time for the pleasure of
entertaining such guests. I am certain that the fears of la Belle will
favor my wishes, whichsoever side of the question her inclinations may
happen to be."

"And they are with her uncle;" quickly returned Alida. "I am so little of
a sailor, that prudence, if not pusillanimity, teaches me to depend on the
experience of older heads."

"Older I may not pretend to be," said Ludlow, coloring; "but Mr. Van
Beverout will see no pretension in believing myself as good a judge of
wind and tide, as even he himself can be."

"You are said to command Her Majesty's sloop with skill, Captain Ludlow,
and it is creditable to the colony, that it has produced so good an
officer; though I believe your grandfather came into the province, so