114 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



I set foot on those "bewitching shores I had deservedly 

 enjoyed the character of a hard-hearted, impregnable 

 "bachelor. It would be tedious to sum up the names 

 of my messmates, whom one after another I had seen 

 fall victims to eyes that had vainly expended fascina- 

 tion on me. The girls always gave me up as a bad 

 job within three weeks of our arriving at new quar- 

 ters. But now my time was come dedi manus I 

 had stretched my tether to the utmost; and soon 

 after I had set foot on the island of Paul and Virginia 

 I had ceased to be a free man. 



Now, put all these things together, and you will 

 not be surprised to hear that I was not out of my wits 

 with joy at being ordered home. 



Mine was one of those complicated cases of love 

 that will occur sometimes ; not one flame, but many 

 consumed me, not one image of female loveliness, 

 but many such specimens, beset my reveries. I would 

 turn out in the morning with the perfect convic- 

 tion that Maria was the real girl after all, and so 

 rest satisfied, till some person or thing, envious of my 

 peace, would call up to my mind's eye Lucie, or some 

 other of the score of pretty names that rejoice Echo 

 in that favoured spot. Thus did I shift my allegiance 

 from one to another, and live in such uncertainty, 

 that had Hymen's self decked for me the altar, I 

 should have been so long in settling what name 

 should thereon be inscribed, that he would infalli- 

 bly have put his torch out in disgust. 



