Dodd was quite overpowered. "No! no!" said he. "Don't now, pray, don't!
There! there! I know, my dear, I know; I'm a father." And he was very
near whimpering himself; but recovered the man and the commander, and
said, soothingly, "There! there!" and he handed her tenderly down to her
cabin.
All this time he had actually forgotten the packet. But now a horrible
fear came on him. He hurried to his own cabin and examined it. A little
salt water had oozed through the bullet-hole and discoloured the leather;
but that was all.
He breathed again.
"Thank Heaven I forgot all about it!" said he: "it would have made a cur
of me."
Lady Beresford's petty irritation against Dodd melted at once-- before so
great a thing: she longed to make friends with him; but for once felt
timid. It struck her now all of a sudden that she had been misbehaving.
However, she caught Dodd alone on the deck, and said to him softly, "I
want so to end our quarrel."
"Our quarrel, madam!" said he; "why, I know of none: oh, about the light
eh? Well, you see the master of a ship is obliged to be a tyrant in some
things.
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