nd see him. I want to see this Inca money sprouting and flourishing
a good deal more than it has done yet!"

"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Cliff. "Don't you call this splendid
house and everything in it a sign of sprouting and flourishing?"

"Oh, my dear madam," said Burke, rising from his seat and walking the
floor, "if you could have looked through the hole in the top of the
mound and have seen under you cartloads and cartloads of pure gold, and
had let your mind rest on what might have grown out of it, a house like
this would have seemed like an acorn on an oak tree!"

"And you think the Captain will have the oak tree?" she asked.

"Yes," said Burke; "I think he's the sort of man to want it, and if he
wants it he'll have it!"

There were days when the weather was very bad and time hung unusually
heavy upon Mr. Burke's hands, when he thought it might be a good thing
to get married. He had a house and money enough to keep a wife as well
as any woman who would have him had any reason to expect. But there were
two objections to this plan. In the first place, what would he do with
his wife after he got tired of living in the Thorpedyke house; and
secondly, where could he find anybody he would like to marry?

He had female acquaintances in Plainton, but not one of them seemed to
have the qualifications he would desire in a wife. Willy Croup was a
good-natured and pleasant woman, and he always liked to talk to her, but
she was too old for him. He might like to adopt her as a maiden aunt,
but then that would not be practicable, for Mrs. Cliff would not be
willing to give her up.

At this time Burke would have gone to make a visit to his mother, but
there was also an objection to this. He would not have dared to present
himself before her in his fur-trimmed overcoat and his high silk hat.
She was a true sailor's mother, and she would have laughed him to scorn,
and so habituated had he become to the dress of a fine gentleman that it
would have seriously interfered with his personal satisfaction to put on
the rough winter clothes in which his mother would expect to see him.

The same reason prevented him from going to his old friend Shirley. He
knew very well that Shirley did not wear a high silk hat and carry a
cane, and he had a sufficient knowledge of human nature and of himself
to know that if his present personal appearance were made the subject of
ridicule, or even inordinate surprise, it would not afford him the