He was bright awake however well before the chaise reached Ashgrove, and he gazed out at his plantations, now in finer leaf than when last he saw them, and at the rather stunted shrubs along the drive, with delight. He was expected, for the clash of the new iron gate could be heard a great way off, and with even greater delight he saw his family in front of the house, the children waving already. But as he jumped out he saw with concern that in spite of her welcome Sophie looked thoroughly upset, her smile constrained, her whole attitude anxious. Mrs Williams was looking very grave. Diana was taken up with telling Stephen about a horse. The children seemed unaffected.
'A dreadful thing has happened,' said Sophie as soon as she had him alone. 'Your brother - my brother, since he is yours, and I love him dearly' - Sophie, when moved, had a way of talking very quick, her words tumbling over one another - 'I mean dear Philip of course has run away from school and he declares he will go to sea with you.'
'Is that all?' cried Jack with great relief. 'Where is he?'
'On the landing. He dared not come down.'
Jack opened the door and hailed, 'Ho Philip, there. Come down, old fellow.' And when he came, 'Why brother, how glad I am to see you.'
'Give you joy, sir,' said Philip in a trembling voice.
'That is kind in you, Philip,' said Jack, shaking his hand, 'and it grieves me all the more to disappoint you. But this won't do, d'ye see? I cannot take my own brother as a youngster in a new command where I know none of the people and they know nothing about me. All the fellows in the midshipmen's berth and everybody else for that matter would put you down as a favourite at once. It would not do; upon my word it would not do. But do not take it too hard. Next year, if you mind your mathematics, Captain Dundas will take you in the Orion, I promise, a ship of the line. He has plenty of squeakers of your age - do not take it too hard.'
He turned away, because Philip was almost certainly going to cry, and Sophie said, There was a message from the Commissioner, asking you to call as soon as you could'
I shall write him a note at once And another inviting poor Bushel of the Diane to dinner tomorrow. Or would that put you out, my dear?'
'Not in the least, my love.
Then please tell Bonden to stand by, dressed like a Christian, to go down with Dray as soon as the letters are wrote.'
Jack knew very well that the Commissioner would have to confer with the Master Shipwright to put the Navy Board's order into just the right shape and indeed to start the urgent work even before the order had a formal existence: the highlyskilled confidential joiners who were to fashion places for the treasure had already come down - treasure which, combined with the envoy's less tangible offerings, would outweigh anything the French could provide; at least that was what the ministry hoped.
He had never met Captain Bushel, and his invitation was necessarily formal; but he put it in as friendly a manner as he could, hoping that it might make the supersession slightly less painful.
It appeared to have no such effect, however. Bonden brought back a note in which Captain Bushel regretted that a previous engagement prevented him from accepting Captain Aubrey's invitation: he ventured to suggest that Captain Aubrey should come aboard tomorrow at half past three o'clock. Captain Aubrey would understand that Captain Bushel, having introduced the officers, should prefer to leave the ship before his successor was read in.
The note came when Captain Aubrey was deep in a very earnest game of speculation, the children hooting and roaring steadily. Philip had recovered his spirits; his niece Caroline was particularly kind in guiding his play, and his eyes sparkled as he piped his bids. At the moment Jack only took notice of the refusal and then carried on with his plot for undermining George, who had little notion of the laws of probability. But later he reflected that Bushel must be rather a pitiful fellow to resent his displacement to such a pitch. The previous engagement might possibly exist, but the total lack of any formal compliments or thanks for the invitation was churlish, while the appointing of a time was most incorrect, and the failure to offer a boat to take him out was shabby in the extreme. It would be perfectly in order for Jack to choose his own date and his own hour: he was senior to Bushel by several years. But although he had never been superseded himself he knew it was generally a most disagreeable process; perhaps so disagreeable in this case that it justified a high degree of resentment. 'Anyhow,' he said, 'I shall follow the scrub's directions.' And in a more inward voice, scarcely a whisper to his most private being, he said, 'Indeed, I should do anything short of slaughtering Sophie and the children to be in my place again.' For although he had been gazetted and although his name was on the list, it was the symbolic and for the sea-officer quasi-sacramental reading-in that would pass the ring and marry him to the Navy once more.
They drove down all four in Diana's coach, with Kilbick and Bonden up behind - a sight that would have made London stare but that was usual enough around Portsmouth, Chatham and Plymouth - for after Jack had done his business with the Commissioner and had taken possession of the Diane they were to dine at the Crown and the women were to be shown the ship.
The Commissioner and Master Shipwright deeply relished anything in the secret line; they were as brisk and co-operative as could be - the confidential joiners' work would be masked by the alterations necessary for the envoy and his people - and when Jack said he was going across to the Diane the Commissioner immediately offered his own barge to take him.
The frigate was lying conveniently near at hand, Just this side of Whale Island, and it was clear that Captain Bushel was still removing his belongings boats were plying to and fro.
'Pull round her, will you? said Jack to the coxswain, for there was still some time to go. Pull easy.
He gazed at her with intense concentration, shading his eyes from the bright sunlight Trim, shipshape, prettier than he had remembered her: she must have a good first lieutenant. A trifle by the stern, perhaps, but otherwise he could not fault her.
Two leisurely circuits and he looked at his watch again 'Larboard,' he said, to avoid the awkwardness of the coxswain calling out Diane when her nominal captain was still aboard.
Up the side: man-ropes but no ceremony. He saluted the quarterdeck and every hat came off in reply, a simultaneous flash of gold.
'Captain Bushel?' he said, advancing with his hand held out. 'Good afternoon, sir: my name is Aubrey.'
Bushel gave him a limp hand, a mechanical smile, and a look of hatred. 'Good afternoon to you, sir. Allow me
