"On the evening of the day when you last arrived in Portsmouth harbour in the _Industry_."
Then, all in a moment, a suspicion of the truth dawned upon George.
"And it was on that same evening that I met him out there, close to the church, and he confided to me, as a great secret, the circ.u.mstance that you had just accepted him."
"You were so near as that, and yet you never called? For shame, George!" exclaimed Lucy.
"Well, you see--I--that is--in fact I could not. The--the plain truth is that I--I was on my way to you at the time, to try my own fortune with you, and when I was told that you had accepted your cousin, I-- well, I felt that I couldn"t meet you just then," stammered George with desperate energy.
"Poor George!" murmured Lucy. "How well my cousin understood your unsuspicious character! He _knew_ it would never occur to you to doubt his word, and he told you that tale to keep you away from--from--"
"From what? from whom?" asked George. "Oh Lucy! is it possible that, if I had carried out my original resolution that night, you would have accepted me?"
"Yes, George, I would indeed," was the murmured reply. "I have loved you, and you only, for a long time. But not longer than you have loved me," she added roguishly, as George took her in his arms and--
But, avast there! whither are we running? It is high time that we should "bout ship and haul off on the opposite tack, if we would not be regarded as impertinent intruders. Love-making is a most delightful pastime, particularly when it comes in at the end of a long period of suffering, hardship, and misunderstanding; but it loses all its piquant charm if it has to be performed in the presence of strangers, no matter how sympathetic. So we will leave it to the lively imagination of the intelligent reader to picture for him, or herself, according to his, or her, particular fancy, the way in which the remainder of the evening was spent, merely mentioning that the lovers found time to come to a thoroughly and mutually satisfactory understanding, and that, when George left Sea View that evening, he was--to make use of a somewhat hackneyed expression--"the happiest of men."
My story is now ended, or nearly so, the intelligent reader aforesaid having doubtless already antic.i.p.ated the little that remains to be told.
The pirates were tried, found guilty, and executed, as a matter of course; the evidence of the crew of the _Virginie_ alone being sufficient to insure their conviction. Captain Bowen went, at considerable personal inconvenience, to witness the execution, being desirous, as he said, of a.s.suring himself with his own eyes that the wretches were so effectually dealt with as to render any further trouble from them an absolute impossibility.
George Leicester did not accompany his friend, being, in fact, more agreeably engaged at the time in spending with Mrs Leicester--_nee_; Walford--a brief honeymoon in London, prior to taking command of the frigate _Cigne_, which had been purchased into the navy, and was then undergoing the process of refitting at Portsmouth.
In this ship, and in others, George afterwards fought many gallant actions, greatly distinguishing himself, and eventually retiring from the service, at an advanced age, with a wooden leg, a baronetcy, and the t.i.tle of rear-admiral. His wife Lucy, with most commendable liberality, presented him with no fewer than seven sons, all of whom grew up to be fine stalwart fellows, and, entering the navy one after the other, followed worthily in the footsteps of their gallant father.
THE END.