fat, untidy woman and his niece could not be
one and the same person. The purser had just raised his cap to Sir
Thomas, and had turned towards the cabin-stairs to go in search of
the lady herself; but he was stopped immediately by Miss Bonner
herself. The purser did his task very well,--said some slightest word
to introduce the uncle and the niece together, and then vanished. Sir
Thomas blushed, shuffled with his feet, and put out both his hands.
He was shy, astonished, and frightened,--and did not know what to
say. The girl came up to him, took his hand in hers, holding it
for a moment, and then kissed it. "I did not think you would come
yourself," she said.

"Of course I have come myself. My girls are at home, and will receive
you to-night." She said nothing further then, but again raised his
hand and kissed it.

It is hardly too much to say that Sir Thomas Underwood was in a
tremble as he gazed upon his niece. Had she been on the deck as
he walked along the quay, and had he noted her, he would not have
dared to think that such a girl as that was coming to his house. He
declared to himself at once that she was the most lovely young woman
he had ever seen. She was tall and somewhat large, with fair hair, of
which now but very little could be seen, with dark eyes, and perfect
eyebrows, and a face which, either for colour or lines of beauty,
might have been taken as a model for any female saint or martyr.
There was a perfection of symmetry about it,--and an assertion of
intelligence combined with the loveliness which almost frightened her
uncle. For there was something there, also, beyond intelligence and
loveliness. We have heard of "an eye to threaten and command." Sir
Thomas did not at this moment tell himself that Mary Bonner had such
an eye, but he did involuntarily and unconsciously acknowledge to
himself that over such a young lady as this whom he now saw before
him, it would be very difficult for him to exercise parental control.
He had heard that she was nineteen, but it certainly seemed to him
that she was older than his own daughters. As to Clary, there could
be no question between the two girls as to which of them would
exercise authority over the other,--not by force of age,--but by dint
of character, will, and fitness. And this Mary Bonner, who now shone
before him as a goddess almost, a young woman to whom no ordinary
man would speak without that kind of trepidation which goddesses do
inflict on ordina