From thus listening and thinking, she was roused by a whisper of Mrs

Musgrove's who, overcome by fond regrets, could not help saying-"Ah! Miss Anne, if it had pleased Heaven to spare my poor son, I dare

say he would have been just such another by this time."

Anne suppressed a smile, and listened kindly, while Mrs Musgrove

relieved her heart a little more; and for a few minutes, therefore,

could not keep pace with the conversation of the others.

When she could let her attention take its natural course again, she

found the Miss Musgroves just fetching the Navy List (their own navy

list, the first that had ever been at Uppercross), and sitting down

together to pore over it, with the professed view of finding out the

ships that Captain Wentworth had commanded.

"Your first was the Asp, I remember; we will look for the Asp."

"You will not find her there. Quite worn out and broken up. I was the

last man who commanded her. Hardly fit for service then. Reported fit

for home service for a year or two, and so I was sent off to the West

Indies."

The girls looked all amazement.

"The Admiralty," he continued, "entertain themselves now and then, with

sending a few hundred men to sea, in a ship not fit to be employed.

But they have a great many to provide for; and among the thousands that

may just as well go to the bottom as not, it is impossible for them to

distinguish the very set who may be least missed."

"Phoo! phoo!" cried the Admiral, "what stuff these young fellows talk!

Never was a better sloop than the Asp in her day. For an old built

sloop, you would not see her equal. Lucky fellow to get her! He knows

there must have been twenty better men than himself applying for her at

the same time. Lucky fellow to get anything so soon, with no more

interest than his."

"I felt my luck, Admiral, I assure you;" replied Captain Wentworth,

seriously. "I was as well satisfied with my appointment as you can

desire. It was a great object with me at that time to be at sea; a

very great object, I wanted to be doing something."

"To be sure you did. What should a young fellow like you do ashore for

half a year together? If a man had not a wife, he soon wants to be

afloat again."

"But, Captain Wentworth," cried Louisa, "how vexed you must have been

when you came to the Asp, to see what an old thing they had given you."




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