H.M.S. "PINAFORE"
"That's nonsense," she replied, "you can't be alone if I am here, you know."
"An unworthy quibble," said he. "You know perfectly well what I mean. It is unladylike to sneer at a poor sailor-man because his education has been neglected."
"It is true," she replied. "I beg your pardon."
"Granted," said he, with the ready urbanity of one of Nature's noblemen.
Poor Josephine was much touched by this generous and freely accorded forgiveness, and the affection that she had long entertained for him struggled with her sense that it would never do to unite herself with a humble and illiterate sailor. Moreover, she had promised her papa that no consideration should induce her to let Ralph Rackstraw know her real sentiments towards him, so she drew a "Diabolo"[1] from her pocket and pretended to be wholly absorbed in the game. She usually played it with great skill, throwing the Diabolo as high as the mast head and
- ↑ "Diabolo" was not publicly played at the date of my story. The game was invented by Josephine, and she reserved it at first for her own entertainment; but eventually Messrs. Ayres of Aldersgate Street were induced to make it public, with considerable pecuniary results, all of which she handed over, like a good girl, to the Sailors' Institute.
61
