bright smile and a genial hand-shake were reserved for the mate.

"And now," said the incensed skipper, breathing deeply as the door
closed and they walked up Liston Street, "what the deuce do you mean by
it?"

"Mean by what?" demanded the mate, who, after much thought, had decided
to take a leaf out of Miss Tyrell's book.

"Mean by leaving me in another part of the house with that Wheeler
girl while you and my intended went off together?" growled Flower
ferociously.

"Well, I could only think you wanted it," said Fraser, in a firm voice.

"_What?_" demanded the other, hardly able to believe his ears

"I thought you wanted Miss Wheeler for number four," said the mate,
calmly. "You know what a chap you are, cap'n."

His companion stopped and regarded him in speechless amaze, then
realising a vocabulary to which Miss Wheeler had acted as a safety-valve
all the evening, he turned up a side street and stamped his way back to
the _Foam_ alone.

CHAPTER V.

THE same day that Flower and his friends visited the theatre, Captain
Barber gave a small and select tea-party. The astonished Mrs. Banks had
returned home with her daughter the day before to find the air full of
rumours about Captain Barber and his new housekeeper. They had been
watched for hours at a time from upper back windows of houses in the
same row, and the professional opinion of the entire female element was
that Mrs. Church could land her fish at any time she thought fit.

"Old fools are the worst of fools," said Mrs. Banks, tersely, as
she tied her bonnet strings; "the idea of Captain Barber thinking of
marrying at his time of life."

"Why shouldn't he?" enquired her daughter.

"Why because he's promised to leave his property to Fred and you, of
course," snapped the old lady; "if he marries that hussy it's precious
little you and Fred will get."

"I expect it's mostly talk," said her daughter calmly, as she closed the
street door behind her indignant parent. "People used to talk about you
and old Mr. Wilders, and there was nothing in it. He only used to come
for a glass of your ale."

This reference to an admirer who had consumed several barrels of the
liquor in question without losing his head, put the finishing touch to
the elder lady's wrath, and she walked the rest of the way in ominous
silence.

Captain Barber received them in the elaborate velvet smoking-cap with
the gold tassel which had evoked such strong encomiums from Mrs.
C