"And John is?" asked Blanche.
"My husband, Captain Hopkinson."
"Captain Hopkinson!" exclaimed Blanche, jumping up from the sofa, "and did he ever command the 'Alert?'"
"To be sure he did, and a regular tub she was!"
"Well, this is curious!" and Blanche seized Mrs. Hopkinson's fat hands, and pressed them warmly, mittens and all. "Captain Hopkinson saved Arthur's life, by his care and kindness when Arthur caught that bad fever on his passage to the Cape."
"Not Lord Chester surely! I always make John tell me the history of all his passengers. I don't half like those ladies from India, who are always coming home to their children, or going back to their husbands; all I can say is, they don't fret on the voyage. I can trust John, but I always like to know who is on board, and I am sure I should have remembered Lord Chester's name!"
"But his elder brother was alive then, he was only Captain Templeton."
