H.M.S. "PINAFORE"
"Don't sing it, my child; your music depresses us both. I want you to look your best to-day, for Sir Joseph Porter will arrive presently to claim your promised hand."
"Nay, father," said Josephine, "I can esteem, reverence, even venerate Sir Joseph, for I shouldn't be surprised if he is a great and good man, but I cannot love him, for, alas! my heart is given!"
"Given!" exclaimed her father, "and to whom? Not to some gilded lordling?"[1]
"No, Papa," said she, "the object of my affection is no lordling. Oh, pity me, for he is but a humble sailor on board your own ship!"
"Impossible!" said Captain Corcoran.
"Yet it is true," replied Josephine, "too true!"
"A common sailor!" exclaimed the Captain, "oh, fie!"
"I quite feel the 'fie,'" said she, "but he's anything but common."
"Come, my child," said her father, " let us talk this over. In a matter of the heart I would not control my daughter. I attach little value to rank or wealth, but the line must be drawn somewhere. A
- ↑ I should have thought he would have liked a gilded lordling, but you never can tell.
34
