'Well - excuse me - but you know you drink,' insisted Dick.
'I know that I was a sheet in the wind's eye, sir, once -
once only, since I reached this place,' retorted the Admiral.
'And even then I was fit for any drawing-room. I should like
you to tell me how many fathers, lay and clerical, go
upstairs every day with a face like a lobster and cod's eyes
- and are dull, upon the back of it - not even mirth for the
money! No, if that's what she runs for, all I say is, let
her run.'
'You see,' Dick tried it again, 'she has fancies - '
'Confound her fancies!' cried Van Tromp. 'I used her kindly;
she had her own way; I was her father. Besides I had taken
quite a liking to the girl, and meant to stay with her for
good. But I tell you what it is, Dick, since she has trifled
with you - Oh, yes, she did though! - and since her old
papa's not good enough for her - the devil take her, say I.'
'You will be kind to her at least?' said Dick.
'I never was unkind to a living soul,' replied the Admiral.
'Firm I can be, but not unkind.'
'Well,' said Dick, offering his hand, 'God bless you, and
farewell.'
The Admiral swore by all his gods he should not go. 'Dick,'
he said, 'You are a selfish dog; you forget your old Admiral.
You wouldn't leave him alone, would you?'
It was useless to remind him that the house was not his to
dispose of, that being a class of considerations to which his
intelligence was closed; so Dick tore himself off by force,
and, shouting a good-bye, made off along the lane to
Thymebury.
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