xcuses."

"Do," said Fancy; "I'd like to hear you start 'pon 'em."

"Well, you can if you will. Come over with me to Rilla to-morrow
forenoon. I'll get leave for you."

"That'd spoil the fun," said Fancy, not one risible muscle twitching;
"but go you'll have to. Mrs Bosenna has left one of her cuffs behind."

She pointed to a white object on the turf. Captain Cai stooped, picked
it up, and held it gingerly in his hand.

"She didn' seem a careless sort, neither," he mused.

"Not altogether," the child agreed with him.

"Dinah," said Mrs Bosenna, halting suddenly as they walked homeward in
the dusk, "I've left one of my cuffs behind!"

"Yes, mistress."

"'Yes, mistress,'" Mrs Bosenna mimicked her. "If 'twas anything
belonging to you, you'd be upset enough."

"I'd have more reason," said Dinah stolidly. "Do 'ee want me to run
back an' fetch it?"

"No--o." Her mistress seemed to hesitate. "'Tisn't worth while; and
ten chances to one somebody will find it."

"That's what I was thinkin'," agreed Dinah.

CHAPTER V.

A TESTIMONIAL.

Captain Cai's sea-chest had been conveyed to the Ship Inn, Trafalgar
Square (so called--as the landlord, Mr Oke, will inform you--after the
famous battle of that name), and there he designed to lodge while his
friend and he furnished their new quarters.

His bed, a four-poster, was luxurious indeed after his old bunk in the
_Hannah Hoo_, and he betook himself to it early. Yet he did not sleep
well. For some while sleep was forbidden by a confusion of voices in
the bar-parlour downstairs; then, after a brief lull, the same voices
started exchanging good-nights in the square without; and finally, when
the rest had dispersed, two belated townsmen lingered in private
conversation, now walking a few paces to and fro on the cobbles, but
ever returning to anchorage under a street lamp beneath his window.
By-and-by the town lamplighter came along, turned off the gas-jet and
wished the two gossips good-night, adding that the weather was
extraordinary for the time of year; but still they lingered.
Captain Cai, worried by the murmur of their voices, climbed out of bed
to close the window. His hand was outstretched to do so when, through
the open sash, he caught a few articulate words--a fragment of a
sentence.

Said one--speaking low but earnestly--"If I should survive my wife, _as
I hope to do_--"

Unwilling to play the eavesdropper, or to startle them by shutting th