heatrical air,
announced--

"A wisitor!"

He was closely followed by Sam Blake, who no sooner beheld Susy than he
seemed to become paralysed, for he stood gazing at her as if in eager
but helpless amazement.

Susy was a good deal surprised at this, but feeling that if she were to
wait for the clearing up of the mystery she would infallibly be late in
reaching the shop of the exacting Stickle and Screw, she swept lightly
past the seaman with a short laugh, and ran down-stairs.

Without a word of explanation Sam sprang after her, but, although smart
enough on the shrouds and ladders of shipboard, he failed to accommodate
himself to the stairs of rookeries, and went down, as he afterwards
expressed it, "by the run," coming to an anchor at the bottom in a
sitting posture. Of course the lithe and active Susy escaped him, and
also escaped being too late by only half a minute.

"Never mind, she'll be back again between nine and ten o'clock, unless
they keep her late," said old Liz, after Sam had explained who he was,
and found that Susy was indeed his daughter, and chimney-pot Liz the
nurse who had tended his wife to her dying day, and afterwards adopted
his child.

"I never was took aback so in all my life," said the seaman, sitting
down beside the old woman, and drawing a sigh so long that it might have
been likened to a moderate breeze. "She's the born image o' what her
dear mother was when I first met her. _My_ Susy! Well, it's not every
poor seaman as comes off a long voyage an' finds that he's fallen heir
to a property like _that_!"

"You may well be proud of her," said old Liz, "and you'll be prouder yet
when you come to know her."

"I know it, and I'm proud to shake your hand, mother, an' thankee kindly
for takin' such care o' my helpless lassie. You say she'll be home
about ten?"

"Yes, if she's not kep' late. She always comes home about that time.
Meanwhile you'll have something to eat. Tommy, boy, fetch out the loaf
and the cheese and the teapot. You know where to find 'em. Tommy's an
orphan, Cap'n Blake, that I've lately taken in hand. He's a good boy is
Tommy, but rather wild."

"Wot can you expect of a horphing?" said the boy with a grin, for he had
overheard the latter remark, though it was intended only for the
visitor's ear. "But I say, granny, there ain't no cheese here, 'cept a
bit o' rind that even a mouse would scorn to look at."

"Never mind, bring out the loaf, Tommy."

"An' t