This despicable
toady was his lordship's double; he was a living type of the Gnatho of
Terence; and I never saw him without remembering the passage that ends
"_si negat id quoque nego_." Black was white, and white was black
with toady, if his lordship pleased; he messed in the cabin, did much
mischief in the ship, and only escaped kicking, because he was too
contemptible to be kicked.
My fair readers are no doubt anxious to know how I parted with Emily,
and truly I am not unwilling to oblige them, though it is, indeed,
a tender subject. As soon as we received our orders to proceed to
Spithead, Mr Somerville, who had kept his house at Blackheath while
the ship was fitting, in hopes that my promotion might have taken
place before she was ready, now prepared to quit the place. To the
renewed application of my father, the answer was that I must go abroad
for my promotion. This at once decided him to break up his summer
quarters, very wisely foreseeing that unless he did so, my services
would be lost to my ship; and if he and Emily did not leave me behind
at Woolwich, I should probably be left behind by my captain: he
therefore announced his intended departure within twenty-four hours.
Emily was very sorry, and so was I. I kindly reproached her with her
cruelty; but she replied with a degree of firmness and good sense,
which I could not but admire, that she had but one counsellor, and
that was her father, and that until she was married, she never
intended to have any other; that by his advice she had delayed the
union: and as we were neither of us very old people, "I trust in God,"
said she, "we may meet again.
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