The question threw me into confusion. The captain answered for me.
"Rarely, indeed. Well, sir, you are lucky. You dance with the lady; you are in the service of the lady; by faithful service you help to make her rich. What greater marks of favour can Providence bestow upon you?"
I made no answer, because, indeed, I knew not what to reply.
"And now, sir, if you will show me your ship, I shall be obliged to you. Teach me the economy of a merchant man."
I obeyed. We left the captain on deck, and I took him over the whole of the ship. He wanted to see everything; he inspected the two carronades on the quarter-deck and the stand of small arms. I showed him the binnacle and explained how we steered and kept her in her course. I took him below and showed him the lower deck, and let him peer into the hole. He saw the galley and the fo'k'sle, and everything.
I observed that he was extremely curious about all he saw. He wanted to know the value of things; the wages; the cost of provisioning the ship; the purchase and the sale of the cargo. It was wonderful to find a man of his rank so curious as to every point.
"I suppose," he said, "that the old man states the mere facts as to these ships--and the lands--and--and the rest of it."
"No man knows better than the captain," I replied. "He has worked for nearly twenty years for his ward."
"No, my lord, not for himself. All for his ward. He has taken nothing for himself, though he might have done so. It has been all for his ward."
"A virtuous guardian, truly. Young man, he should be an example to you. Would that there were many guardians so prudent and so careful!"
Then I invited him into the cabin, and showed him how the log is kept, and the ship's course set down day by day. There was nothing which he did not wish to understand.
"I never knew before," he said, "that ships could mean money. Pray, Captain Crowle, could a ship, such as this, be sold and converted into ready money like a forest of oak or a plantation of cedars, or an estate of land?"
"Assuredly, my lord. If I put up _The Lady of Lynn_ for sale to-morrow there would be a score of bids for her here in this town. If I sold her in London she would command a higher price."
"Your ward could, therefore, sell her whole fleet if she chose."