u would recognise it?--Do you mind my asking these
questions? No; that's all right; but if it is in the least painful to
you, I will not put them. You see, Legerton, I have very little doubt
that face was the face of your mother; and I confess I feel a trifle
curious to know how far back a man can carry his remembrance of his
mother. I cannot remember anything about mine previous to my fourth
birthday."

"Well," answered Bob, "I can scarcely remember the face clearly enough
to describe it. All I can say about it is that it was very beautiful,
with tender loving eyes and dark hair, which I am almost sure must have
been worn in curls; but I think that if ever I saw a really good picture
of it I should recognise it directly."

"You would, eh?" said Lance. "Very well, now go ahead--if you are not
tired of talking--and tell me about the old fellow who found you, and
the sort of life you led as a fisherman, and so on; it is all very
interesting, I assure you; quite as much so as any of the novels in the
saloon book-case."

Bob accordingly went ahead, his companion occasionally interrupting him
with a question; and when the story was finished Lance rose and
stretched himself, saying as he turned to walk away--

"Thank you very much. Your story is so interesting that I think I shall
make a few notes of it for the benefit of a literary friend of mine; so
if you meet with it in print some day you must not be very much
surprised."

And as Bob saw him shortly afterwards, note-book in hand; and as this
story actually _is_ in print, it is to be presumed that Mr Lance Evelin
really carried out his expressed intention.

On the day following this conversation the wind, which had been blowing
steadily from the westward for some time, suddenly dropped; and by four
bells in the afternoon watch it had fallen to a dead calm; the ship
rolling like a log on the heavy swell. Not the faintest trace of cloud
could be discerned in the stupendous vault which sprang in delicate
carnation and primrose tints from the encircling horizon, passing
through a multitude of subtle gradations of colour until it became at
the zenith a broad expanse of clearest purest deepest blue. The
atmosphere was transparent to an almost extraordinary degree, the slow-
moving masses of swell rising sharply outlined to the very verge of the
horizon, while the mast-heads of a far-distant ship stood out clear and
well-defined, like two minute and delicately draw