HE ward-room lunch was finished, and all the ladies were playing "Bridge" for nuts with the officers, except Josephine, whose thoughts were too much occupied with other and more important matters. So she came on deck to indulge in a rêverie all alone.

"It is useless," said she to herself; "Sir Joseph's attentions disgust me. I know that he is a truly great and good man, for he told me so himself, and of course he would know;^[1] but to me he seems tedious, fretful, and dictatorial. Yet his must be a mind of no common order, or he would not dare to

1. ↑ Sir Joseph was mistaken, but, to do him justice, he believed that he was telling the truth. Josephine's estimate of his character was much nearer the mark.