But, an uncle disappointed in the service leaving me his property on condition that I left the Navy, I accepted the fortune, and resigned my commission.' 'Lately, I presume ?' 'Well, I had had twelve or fifteen years of knocking about first.

I came here some nine months before you; I had had one crop before you came.

I chose this place, because, having served last in a little corvette, I knew I should feel more at home where I had a constant opportunity of knocking my head against the ceiling.

Besides, it would never do for a man who had been aboard ship from his boyhood to turn luxurious all at once.

Besides, again; having been accustomed to a very short allowance of land all my life, I thought I'd feel my way to the command of a landed estate, by beginning in boxes.' Whimsically as this was said, there was a touch of merry earnestness in it that made it doubly whimsical.
'However,' said the Lieutenant, 'I have talked quite enough about myself.
It is not my way, I hope; it has merely been to present myself to you naturally.