of considerations that assaulted it; he revolved in silence all
the opposite motives that occurred to his reflection; and after
having been, to all appearance, bewildered in the labyrinth of his
own thoughts, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, and, heaving
a piteous groan, yielded to their remonstrances in these words:
"Well, since it must be so, I think we must ev'n grapple. But d--
my eyes! 'tis a d--d hard case that a fellow of my years should
be compelled, d'ye see, to beat up to windward all the rest of my
life against the current of my own inclination."

This important article being discussed, Mr. Hatchway set out in
the morning to visit the despairing shepherdess, and was handsomely
rewarded for the enlivening tidings with which he blessed her
ears. Sick as she was, she could not help laughing heartily at the
contrivance, in consequence of which her swain's assent had been
obtained, and gave the lieutenant ten guineas for Tom Pipes, in
consideration of the part he acted in the farce.

In the afternoon the commodore suffered himself to be conveyed to
her apartment, like a felon to execution, and was received by her
in a languishing manner, and genteel dishabille, accompanied by
her sister-in-law, who was, for very obvious reasons, extremely
solicitous about her success. Though the lieutenant had tutored
him touching his behaviour it this interview, he made a thousand
wry faces before he could pronounce the simple salutation of "How
d'ye?" to his mistress; and after his counsellor had urged him with
twenty or thirty whispers, to each of which he had replied aloud,
"D-- your eyes, I won't," he got up, and halting towards the couch
on which Mrs. Grizzle reclined in a state of strange expectation,
he seized her hand and pressed it to his lips; but this piece