An unexpected windfall from an almost forgotten
uncle and his own investments had placed him in a position of modest
comfort, and just before Miss Nugent reached her twentieth birthday he
resolved to spend his declining days ashore and give her those advantages
of parental attention from which she had been so long debarred.
Mr. Wilks, to the inconsolable grief of his ship-mates, left with him.
He had been for nearly a couple of years in receipt of an annuity
purchased for him under the will of his mother, and his defection left a
gap never to be filled among comrades who had for some time regarded him
in the light of an improved drinking fountain.
CHAPTER V
On a fine afternoon, some two months after his release from the toils
of the sea, Captain Nugent sat in the special parlour of The Goblets.
The old inn offers hospitality to all, but one parlour has by ancient
tradition and the exercise of self-restraint and proper feeling been
from time immemorial reserved for the elite of the town.
The captain, confident in the security of these unwritten regulations,
conversed freely with his peers.
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