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?"

"My brother," said the sweet-tempered Faith, "never tries to be a fool,

Lord Nelson; he only tries to be a poet."

This made people laugh; and Nelson, feeling that he had been rude to a

youth who could not fairly answer him, jumped from his chair with the

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