as one of the officers of the ship, and we shall be always glad to
have you here, though of course you can always go up to your own
room, or go out, when you feel inclined."

"I have to go out three times a week to work," Cyril said; "but all
the other evenings I shall be glad indeed to sit here, Mistress
Dowsett. You cannot tell what a pleasure it is to me to be in an
English home like this."

It was not long before John Wilkes went out.

"He is off to smoke his pipe," the Captain said. "I never light mine
till he goes. I can't persuade him to take his with me; he insists it
would not be manners to smoke in the cabin."

"He is quite right, father," Nellie said. "It is bad enough having
you smoke here. When mother's friends or mine come in they are
well-nigh choked; they are not accustomed to it as we are, for a
respectable London citizen does not think of taking tobacco."

"I am a London citizen, Nellie, but I don't set up any special claim
to respectability. I am a sea-captain, though that rascally Greek
cannon-ball and other circumstances have made a trader of me, sorely
against my will; and if I could not have my pipe and my glass of grog
here I would go and sit with John Wilkes in the tavern at the corner
of the street, and I suppose that would not be even as respectable as
smoking here."

"Nellie doesn't mean, David, that she wants you to give up smoking;
only she thinks that John is quite right to go out to take his pipe.