He saved them both, but in the doing of it missed his ship, and
professional ruin faced him. Then good-hearted Lucy was miserable, and
appealed to Mr. Bazalgette, and he managed somehow to get David made
captain of the _Rajah._ The poor girl thought she had squared the account
with David; but he refused the ship unless she would go halves, and while
her egotists bullied and vexed her, he wrought so upon her pity, and
teased her so, that to get rid of his importunity she married him. In
time she learned to love him ten times better than if she had begun all
flames. Uncle and aunt cut her tolerably dead for some years. Uncle came
round the first; some antiquarian showed him that Dodd was a much more
ancient family than Talboys. "Why, sir, they were lords of sixteen manors
under the Heptarchy, and hold some of them to this day." Mrs. Bazalgette,
too, had long corresponded with her periodically, and on friendly terms.
The answers came on the same day, curiously enough. Uncle Fountain,
ruined by railway speculation, was living on an allowance from creditors;
but his house was at their service, if they liked to live with him--and
board themselves.
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