Under the Waves | Page 3

I've just finished my engagement with the firm of Steel, Bolt, Hardy, and Company, and am now on the point of going to sea."
Baldwin looked at his companion in surprise. "Going to sea!" he repeated, "why, I thought you didn't like the sea?"
"You thought right, Baldwin, but men are sometimes under the necessity of submitting to what they don't like. I have no love for the sea, except, indeed, as a beautiful object to be admired from the shore, but, you see, I want to finish my education by going a voyage as one of the subordinate engineers in an ocean-steamer, so as to get some practical acquaintance with marine engineering. Besides, I have taken a fancy to see something of foreign parts before settling down vigorously to my profession, and--"
"Well?" said Baldwin, as the youth made rather a long pause.
"Can you keep a secret, Baldwin, and give advice to a fellow who stands sorely in need of it?"
The youth said this so earnestly that the huge diver, who was a sympathetic soul, declared with much fervour that he could do both.
"You must know, then," began Edgar with some hesitation, "the fact is-- you're such an old friend, Baldwin, and took such care of me when I was a boy up to that sad time when I lost my father, and you lost an employer--"
"Ay, the best master I ever had," interrupted the diver.
"That--that I think I may trust you; in short, Baldwin, I'm over head and ears with a young girl, and--and--"
"An' your love ain't requited--eh?" said Baldwin interrogatively, while his weatherbeaten face elongated.
"No, not exactly that," rejoined Edgar, with a laugh. "Aileen loves me almost, I believe, as well as I love her, but her father is dead against us. He scorns me because I am not a man of wealth."
"What is he?" demanded Baldwin.
"A rich China merchant."
"He's more than that," said Baldwin.
"Indeed!" said Edgar, with a surprised look; "what more is he?"
"He's a goose!" returned the diver stoutly.
"Don't be too hard on him, Baldwin. Remember, I hope some day to call him father-in-law. But why do you hold so low an opinion of him?"
"Why, because he forgets that riches may, and often do, take to themselves wings and fly away, whereas broad shoulders, and deep chest, and sound limbs, and a good brain, usually last the better part of a lifetime; and a brave heart will last for ever."
"I am afraid that I have yet to prove, to myself as well as to the old gentleman, that the brave heart is mine," returned Edgar. "As to the physique--you may be so far right, but he evidently undervalues that."
"I said nothing about physic," returned Baldwin, who still frowned as he thought of the China merchant, "and the less that you and I have to do wi' that the better. But what are you goin' to do, sir?"
"That is just the point on which I want to have your advice. What ought I to do?"
"Don't run away with her, whatever you do," said Baldwin emphatically.
The youth laughed slightly as he explained that there was no chance whatever of his doing that, because Aileen would never consent to run away or to disobey her father.
"Good--good," said the diver, with still greater emphasis than before, "I like that. The gal that would sacrifice herself and her lover sooner than disobey her father--even though he is a goose--is made o' the right stuff. If it's not takin' too great a liberty, Mister Edgar, may I ask what she's like?"
"What she's like--eh?" murmured the other, dropping his head as if in reverie, and stroking the dark shadow on his chin which was beginning to do duty for a beard. "Why, she--she's like nothing that I ever saw on earth before."
"No!" ejaculated Baldwin, elevating his eyebrows a little, as he said gravely, "what, not even like an angel?"
"Well, yes; but even that does not sufficiently describe her. She's fair,"--he waxed enthusiastic here,--"surpassingly fair, with wavy golden tresses and blue eyes, and a bright complexion and a winning voice, and a sylph-like figure and a thinnish but remarkably pretty face--"
"Ah!" interrupted Baldwin, with a sigh, "I know: just like my missus."
"Why, my good fellow," cried Edgar, unable to restrain a fit of laughter, "I do not wish to deny the good looks of Mrs Baldwin, but you know that she's uncommonly ruddy and fat and heavy, as well as fair."
"Ay, an' forty, if you come to that," said the diver. "She's fourteen stun if she's an ounce; but let me tell you, Mister Edgar, she wasn't always heavy. There was a time when my Susan was as trim and taut and clipper-built as any Aileen that ever was born."
"I have no doubt of it whatever," returned the youth, "but I was going to say, when