se your looking for
him here, for here he is not."

"Then where is he? He is running after some of your beastly vampyres
somewhere, I'll be bound, and you know where to send for him."

"Then you are mistaken; for, indeed, we don't. We want him ourselves,
ma'am, and can't find him--that's the fact."

"It's all very well talking, sir, but if you were a married woman, with
a family about you, and the last at the breast, you'd feel very
different from what you do now."

"I'm d----d if I don't suppose I should," said the admiral; "but as for
the last, ma'am, I'd soon settle that. I'd wring its neck, and shove it
overboard."

"You would, you brute? It's quite clear to me you never had a child of
your own."

"Mrs. Chillingworth," said Henry, "I think you have no right to complain
to us of your domestic affairs. Where your husband goes, and what he
does, is at his own will and pleasure, and, really, I don't see that we
are to be made answerable as to whether he is at home or abroad; to say
nothing of the bad taste--and bad taste it most certainly is, of talking
of your private affairs to other people."

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Chillingworth; "that's your idea, is it, you
no-whiskered puppy?"

"Really, madam, I cannot see what my being destitute of whiskers has to
do with the affair; and I am inclined to think my opinion is quite as
good without them as with them."

"I will speak," said Flora, "to the doctor, when I see him."

"Will you, Miss Doll's-eyes? Oh, dear me! you'll speak to the doctor,
will you?"

"What on earth do you want?" said Henry. "For your husband's sake, whom
we all respect, we wish to treat you with every imaginable civility; but
we tell you, candidly, that he is not here, and, therefore, we cannot
conceive what more you can require of us."

"Oh, it's a row," said the admiral; "that's what she wants--woman like.
D----d a bit do they care what it's about as long as there's a
disturbance. And now, ma'am, will you sit down and have a glass of
grog?"

"No, I will not sit down; and all I can say is, that I look upon this
place as a den full of snakes and reptiles. That's my opinion; so I'll
not stay any longer; but, wishing that great judgments may some day come
home to you all, and that you may know what it is to be a mother, with
five babies, and one at the breast, I despise you all and leave you."

So saying, Mrs. Chillingworth walked from the place, feeling herself
highly hurt and offended at