asked 'im one evening--in
a roundabout way--and he answered in such a long, roundabout way that I
didn't know wot to make of it till I see that she was standing just
behind me, listening. Arter that I heard 'er asking questions about me,
but I didn't 'ave to listen: I could hear 'er twenty yards away, and
singing to myself at the same time.

Arter that she treated me as if I was the dirt beneath 'er feet. She
never spoke to me, but used to speak against me to other people. She
was always talking to them about the "sleeping-sickness" and things o'
that kind. She said night-watchmen always made 'er think of it somehow,
but she didn't know why, and she couldn't tell you if you was to ask
her. The only thing I was thankful for was that I wasn't 'er husband.
She stuck to 'im like his shadow, and I began to think at last it was a
pity she 'adn't got some thing to be jealous about and something to
occupy her mind with instead o' me.

"She ought to 'ave a lesson," I ses to the skipper one evening. "Are
you going to be follered about like this all your life? If she was made
to see the foolishness of 'er ways she might get sick of it."

My idea was to send her on a wild-goose chase, and while the Wild Rose
was away I thought it out. I wrote a love-letter to the skipper signed
with the name of "Dorothy," and asked 'im to meet me at Cleopatra's
Needle on the Embankment at eight o'clock on Wednesday. I told 'im to
look out for a tall girl (Mrs. Smithers was as short as they make 'em)
with mischievous brown eyes, in a blue 'at with red roses on it.

I read it over careful, and arter marking it "Private," twice in front
and once on the back, I stuck it down so that it could be blown open
a'most, and waited for the schooner to come back. Then I gave a van-boy
twopence to 'and it to Mrs. Smithers, wot was sitting on the deck alone,
and tell 'er it was a letter for Captain Smithers.

I was busy with a barge wot happened to be handy at the time, but I
'eard her say that she would take it and give it to 'im. When I peeped
round she 'ad got the letter open and was leaning over the side to
wind'ard trying to get 'er breath. Every now and then she'd give
another look at the letter and open 'er mouth and gasp; but by and by
she got calmer, and, arter putting it back in the envelope, she gave it
a lick as though she was going to bite it, and stuck it down agin. Then
she went off the wharf, and I'm blest if, five minutes arterwa