"He has given up his ship; he possesses a sufficient income, and he has nobody to live with him. I should like to know why he doesn't marry.""The Captain was excessively rude to Me," the widow's younger sister added, on her side. "When we took leave of him in London, I asked if there was any chance of his joining us at Brighton this season. He turned his back on me as if I had mortally offended him; and he made me this extraordinary answer: 'Miss! Ihate the sight of the sea.' The man has been a sailor all his life. What does he mean by saying that he hates the sight of the sea?"These questions were addressed to a third person present--and the person was a man. He was entirely at the mercy of the widow and the widow's sister. The other ladies of the family--who might have taken him under their protection--had gone to an evening concert. He was known to be the Captain's friend, and to be well acquainted with events in the Captain's life. As it happened, he had reasons for hesitating to revive associations connected with those events. But what polite alternative was left to him? He must either inflict disappointment, and, worse still, aggravate curiosity--or he must resign himself to circumstances, and tell the ladies why the Captain would never marry, and why (sailor as he was) he hated the sight of the sea. They were both young women and handsome women--and the person to whom they had appealed (being a man) followed the example of submission to the sex, first set in the garden of Eden. He enlightened the ladies, in the terms that follow:
