The yacht is now under weigh, and her sails are all set. She is running
between Drake's Island and the main. Dinner has been announced. As the
reader has learnt something about the preparations, I leave him to judge
whether it be not very pleasant to sit down to dinner in a yacht. The
air has given everybody an appetite; and it was not until the cloth was
removed that the conversation became general.
"Mr Seagrove," said his lordship, "you very nearly lost your passage; I
expected you last Thursday."
"I am sorry, my lord, that business prevented my sooner attending to
your lordship's kind summons."
"Come, Seagrove, don't be nonsensical," said Hautaine; "you told me
yourself, the other evening, when you were talkative, that you had never
had a brief in your life."
"And a very fortunate circumstance," replied Seagrove; "for if I had had
a brief I should not have known what to have done with it. It is not my
fault; I am fit for nothing but a commissioner. But still I had
business, and very important business, too; I was summoned by Ponsonby
to go with him to Tattersall's, to give my opinion about a horse he
wishes to purchase, and then to attend him to Forest Wild to plead his
cause with his uncle."
"It appears, then, that you were retained," replied Lord B.; "may I ask
you whether your friend gained his cause?"
"No, my lord, he lost his cause, but he gained a suit."
"Expound your riddle, sir," said Cecilia Ossulton.
"The fact is, that old Ponsonby is very anxious that William should
marry Miss Percival, whose estates join on to Forest Wild.
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