fancy for him, I don't know that there'd be any objection. He is quite
uncommon--quite uncommon when you consider all things--but I don't know
why you want to lead her to like any one in particular, when she has such
a nice home and is all we have."

"Girls will marry, Mrs. Maurice. If it isn't one, it will be another. So I
had rather it should, be one, and that one of my own choosing--one who,
will use her well, and not make ducks and drakes of her money as soon as
we are gone where there's no returning, and without a 'thank you' for your
pains. Look at them now! Should you imagine they thought there was any one
else on earth but each other at this moment? They're fond of each other,
that's plain. They'd be a remarkable-looking couple. What do you think of
it?"

"Frarnie might have that India shawl that I never undid, to appear out
in," said Mrs. Maurice, pensively, continuing her own reflections rather
than directly replying. "And I suppose we needn't lose her really, for she
could make her home with us."

And so the conspiracy advanced, its simple victims undreaming of its
approach--Louie sighing faintly to think she saw so little of Andrew now,
but content, since she was sure it was for his best interest to make the
friendship of the Sabrina's owner; Andrew fretting to see how all this
necessary submission to superiors kept him from Louie, but more than half
compensated with the dazzling visions that danced before his eyes of the
Sabrina in her new rig--of the barque coming down for her masts and sails
from her launching.

The Sabrina had been so badly injured by her disasters that it took much
more time to repair her than had at first been thought. "I'm going to
stand by the old brig," said Andrew to some one--by accident it was in Mr.
Maurice's hearing. "But if I'd known it was going to take so long to have
her whole again, I should have made a penny in taking a run down the bay,
for I had an offer to go second mate on the Tartar."

"I'll go one better than that," said Mr. Maurice then. "Here's the
Frarnie, nearly ready to clear for New Orleans and Liverpool, with your
old captain. You shall go mate of her. That'll show if you can handle a
ship. The Sabrina won't be at the wharf till the round voyage is over and
the Frarnie coming up the stream again. What say you?"

Of course what Andrew said was modest thanks--what he felt was a rhapsody
of delight; and when he told Louie that night, what she said was a s