seventeen, at her daring, and looked at her father.

"That last cut was meant for me," Frank Darling, the eldest of the
family, explained from the opposite side of the table. "Your lordship,
though so well known to us, can hardly be expected to know or remember
all the little particulars of our race. We are four, as you know; and
the elder two are peaceful, while the younger pair are warlike. And I
am to be the 'nasty lawyer,' called to the bar in the fullness of
time--which means after dining sufficiently--to the great disgust of
your little godchild, whose desire from her babyhood has been to get me
shot."

"LITTLE, indeed! What a word to use about me! You told a great story.
But now you'll make it true."

"To wit--as we say at Lincoln's Inn--she has not longed always for my
death in battle, but henceforth will do so; but I never shall afford
her that gratification. I shall keep out of danger as zealously as your
lordship rushes into it."

"Franky going on, I suppose, with some of his usual nonsense," Admiral
Darling, who was rather deaf, called out from the bottom of the table.
"Nobody pays much attention to him, because he does not mean a word of
it. He belongs to the peace--peace--peace-at-any-price lot. But when a
man wanted to rob him last winter, he knocked him down, and took him by
the throat, and very nearly killed him."

"That's the only game to play," exclaimed Lord Nelson, who had been
looking at Frank Darling with undisguised disgust. "My young friend, you
are not such a fool after all. And why should you try to be one?"