Bim! it fell like a man shot down in a riot.

Distraction! It was harder than a sinner's heart; yea, tough as the cock that crowed on the morn that Peter told a lie.
"Gentlemen of the mess, for heaven's sake! permit me one word.

I have done my duty by that duff--I have----" But they beat down my excuses with a storm of criminations.

One present proposed that the fatal pudding should be tied round my neck, like a mill-stone, and myself pushed overboard.

No use, no use; I had failed; ever after, that duff lay heavy at my stomach and my heart.
After this, I grew desperate; despised popularity; returned scorn for scorn; till at length my week expired, and in the duff-bag I transferred the keys of office to the next man on the roll.
Somehow, there had never been a very cordial feeling between this mess and me; all along they had nourished a prejudice against my white jacket.