do her part with the nets. That
was labour that gave her pleasure, however, and, thanks to the fishery,
there came a day when she met a party who interested her more than any
other man had done up to that time.

He was a sailor and a calm sort of chap--dark and well-favoured with a lot
of fun in him and a lot of character and determination. First mate of a
sailing vessel that traded between Dartmouth and Jersey, was Edmund
Masters. He had friends at Dittisham, and it was when along with these on
the river fishing, that he got acquainted with Christie. Then, as often as
his ship, _The Provider_, came to Dartmouth port, he'd find occasion to be
up at Dittisham and drop into "Passage House" for a drink and a glimpse of
the girl.

As for Jimmy Fox, he thought nothing of it, because a sailor man was of no
account in his eyes, and, indeed, he and his wife had very fixed ideas for
Christie, which all too soon for her comfort she had now to hear.

After they'd got to bed one night, Mrs. Fox started the subject in her
husband's ear.

"'Tis time," she said, "that William Bassett set on to Christie. She's
wife-old now and a good-looking creature, and the men are after her
already--that Jersey sailor for one. And it's only making needless trouble
for her to go hankering after some worthless youth when you and me and
Bassett are all agreed that he must have her."

They'd planned the maiden's future to please themselves, not her; and such
was the view they took of life, that they seemed to think Christie no more
than their slave, to be given in marriage where it suited them best.

"There'll be a rumpus," said the ferryman. "But the least said, the
soonest mended. William named her to me not long ago, and he brought her a
brave dish of plums into the bar only last week. I'll see him to-morrow
and tell him to start on her serious and offer himself and say we will
it."

But even sooner than he expected did Jimmy see Mr. Bassett, for almost the
first passenger as he had for Greenway next day was William. This man
owned best part of a square mile of the famous Dittisham plum orchards,
and he had a bit of house property nigh St. George's Church also, and was
one of our most prosperous people at that time. He was a widower, old
enough to be Christie's father; but after five wifeless years he decided
to wed again, and having a cheerful conceit of himself and his cash, and
reckoning that he had only to drop the handkerchief to any fem