t know what--fished up from the deep, no doubt; and shells
innumerable, and stones that glitter, and fish like glass, and tufts
like lace, and birds with most wonderful things in their mouths:
Mistress Precious, you are too bad. The whole of it ought to go to
London, where they make collections!"

"Lor, Sir, how ye da be laffin' at me. But purty maa be said of 'em
wi'out ony lees."

The landlady smiled as she set for him a chair, toward which he trod
gingerly, and picking every step, for his own sake as well as of the
garniture. For the black oak floor was so oiled and polished, to set
off the pattern of the sea-flowers on it (which really were laid with no
mean taste and no small sense of color), that for slippery boots there
was some peril.

"This is a sacred as well as beautiful place," said Mr. Mordacks. "I may
finish my words with safety here. Madam, I commend your prudence as well
as your excellent skill and industry. I should like to bring my daughter
Arabella here: what a lesson she would gain for tapestry! But now,
again, for business. What do you say? Unless I am mistaken, you have
some knowledge of the matter depending on this bauble. You must not
suppose that I came to you at random. No, madam, no; I have heard far
away of your great intelligence, caution, and skill, and influence in
this important town. 'Mistress Precious is the Mayor of Flamborough,'
was said to me only last Saturday; 'if you would study the wise people
there, hang up your hat in her noble hostelry.' Madam, I have taken that
advice, and heartily rejoice at doing so. I am a man of few words,
very few words--as you must have seen already--but of the strictest
straightforwardness in deeds. And now again, what do you say, ma'am?"

"Your Warship hath left ma nowt to saa. Your Warship hath had the mooth
aw to yosell."

"Now Mistress, Mistress Precious, truly that is a little too bad of you.
It is out of my power to help admiring things which are utterly beyond
me to describe, and a dinner of such cooking may enlarge the tongue,
after all the fine things it has been rolling in. But business is my
motto, in the fewest words that may be. You know what I want; you will
keep it to yourself, otherwise other people might demand the money.
Through very simple channels you will find out whether the fellow thing
to this can be found here or elsewhere; and if so, who has got it, and
how it was come by, and everything else that can be learned about it;