lated Julia in alarm,
somewhat in the light fair witches were looked on when the faggots were
piled for them. The sense of her unholy attractions abased and mortified
me: and it set me thinking on the strangeness of my disregard of Mdlle.
Jenny Chassediane when in Germany, who was far sprightlier, if not
prettier, and, as I remembered, had done me the favour to make discreet
play with her eyelids in our encounters, and long eyes in passing. I
caught myself regretting my coldness of that period; for which regrets I
could have swung the scourge upon my miserable flesh. Ottilia's features
seemed dying out of my mind. 'Poor darling Harry!' Julia sighed. 'And d'
ye know, the sight of a young man far gone in love gives me the
trembles?' I rallied her concerning the ladder scene in my old
schooldays, and the tender things she had uttered to Heriot. She
answered, 'Oh, I think I got them out of poets and chapters about
lovemaking, or I felt it very much. And that's what I miss in William; he
can't talk soft nice nonsense. I believe him, he would if he could, but
he 's like a lion of the desert--it 's a roar!'

I rejoiced when we heard the roar. Captain Bulsted returned to take
command of his ship, not sooner than I wanted him, and told us of a
fierce tussle with the squire. He had stuck to him all day, and up to 11
P.M. 'By George! Harry, he had to make humble excuses to dodge out of
eyeshot a minute. Conquered him over the fourth bottle! And now all's
right. He'll see your dad. "In a barn?" says the squire. "Here 's to your
better health, sir," I bowed to him; "gentlemen don't meet in barns; none
but mice and traps make appointments there." To shorten my story, my lad,
I have arranged for the squire and your excellent progenitor to meet at
Bulsted: we may end by bringing them over a bottle of old Greg's best.
"See the boy's father," I kept on insisting. The point is, that this
confounded book must be off your shoulders, my lad. A dirty dog may wash
in a duck-pond. You see, Harry, the dear old squire may set up your
account twenty times over, but he has a right to know how you twirl the
coin. He says you don't supply the information. I suggest to him that
your father can, and will. So we get them into a room together. I'll be
answerable for the rest. And now top your boom, and to bed here: off in
the morning and tug the big vessel into port here! And, Harry, three
cheers, and another bottle to crown the victory, if you 're the ma