jealousy. It seemed to him that in his loneliness, between sky and sea,
those pangs were more acute than he had ever known them. His comrades
teased him about his melancholy looks, and made him the butt of all their
jokes in the cockpit. He resolved, however, to get over it, and at the
next port they put into, Jacqueline's letter was the cause of his
entering for the first time some discreditable scenes of dissipation.

At Bermuda he received another letter, dated from Paris, where Jacqueline
had rejoined her parents, who had returned from Italy. She sent him a
commission. Would he buy her a riding-whip? Bermuda was renowned for
its horsewhips, and her father had decided that she must go regularly to
the riding-school. They seemed anxious now to give her, as preliminary
to her introduction into society, not only such pleasures as horseback
exercise, but intellectual enjoyment also. She had been taken to the
Institute to hear M. Legouve, and what was better still, in December her
stepmother would give a little party every fortnight and would let her
sit up till eleven o'clock. She was also to be taken to make some calls.
In short, she felt herself rising in importance, but the first thing that
had made her feel so was Fred's choice of her to be his literary
confidant. She was greatly obliged to him, and did not know how she
could better prove to him that she was worthy of so great an honor than
by telling him quite frankly just what she thought of his verses. They
were very, very pretty. He had talent--great talent. Only, as in
attending the classes of M. Regis she had acquired some little knowledge
of the laws of versification, she would like to warn him against
impairing a thought for the benefit of a rhyme, and she pointed out
several such places in his compositions, ending thus:

"Bravo! for sunsets, for twilights, for moonshine, for deep silence, for
starry nights, and silvery seas--in such things you excel; one feels as