rl,' she answered, a little reproachfully.

'The shell is apparent enough,' I replied, for the mischief was in me.

'Ah yes,' she replied softly, 'but it is the pearl we love.'

I moved over beside Billy, whose eyes were following Mrs. Mavor as she
went to speak to Mr. Craig. 'Well,' I said; 'you all seem to have a high
opinion of her.'

'An 'igh hopinion,' he replied, in deep scorn. 'An 'igh hopinion, you
calls it.'

'What would you call it?' I asked, wishing to draw him out.

'Oi don't call it nothink,' he replied, spreading out his rough hands.

'She seems very nice,' I said indifferently.

He drew his eyes away from Mrs. Mavor, and gave attention to me for the
first time.

'Nice!' he repeated with fine contempt; and then he added impressively,
'Them as don't know shouldn't say nothink.'

'You are right,' I answered earnestly, 'and I am quite of your opinion.'

He gave me a quick glance out of his little, deep-set, dark-blue eyes,
and opened his heart to me. He told me, in his quaint speech, how again
and again she had taken him in and nursed him, and encouraged him, and
sent him out with a new heart for his battle, until, for very shame's
sake at his own miserable weakness, he had kept out of her way for many
months, going steadily down.

'Now, oi hain't got no grip; but when she says to me to-night, says
she, "Oh, Billy"--she calls me Billy to myself' (this with a touch of
pride)--'"oh, Billy," says she, "we must 'ave a total habstinence league
to-night, and oi want you to 'elp!" and she keeps a-lookin' at me with
those heyes o' hern till, if you believe me, sir,' lowering his voice to
an emphatic whisper, 'though oi knowed oi couldn't 'elp none, afore oi
knowed oi promised 'er oi would. It's 'er heyes. When them heyes says
"do," hup you steps and "does."'

I remembered my first look into her eyes, and I could quite understand
Billy's submission. Just as she began to sing I went over to Geordie and
took my seat beside him. She began with an English slumber song,
'Sleep, Baby, Sleep'--one of Barry Cornwall's, I think,--and then sang
a love-song with the refrain, 'Love once again'; but no thrills came to
me, and I began to wonder if her spell over me was broken. Geordie, who
had been listening somewhat indifferently, encouraged me, however, by
saying, 'She's just pittin' aff time with thae feckless sangs; man,
there's nae grup till them.' But when, after a few minutes' pause,
she began 'My Ain Fireside