irst
time the spare bed had been ordered. Reflection, however convinced her
that her hopes were strung upon too slight a thread; and, musing on the
improbability of not having ascertained during a year the fact of her
master having so near a relative--moreover, her son was not in
existence, she sighed, and dismissed the idea as ridiculous. Before the
gentlemen had finished their wine, Amber was in bed, and Mrs Forster
invariably sat at the side of it until her own hour of repose had
arrived. A certain indefinable curiosity still remained lurking; yet,
as she could not gratify it without intrusion (if the strangers were
still up), she retired to bed, with the reflection, that all her doubts
would be relieved in the morning; and, after lying awake for some hours
in a state of suspense, she at last fell into that sound sleep, which is
usually produced by previous excitement. How she was awakened from it,
the reader has been already informed.

"It's rather awkward, Newton," said Mr John Forster, about ten days
afterwards. "I cannot do without your mother, that's certain: but what
am I to do with your father? Humph! Well, she must take charge of him
as well as Amber. She must teach him--"

"Teach him what, sir?" replied Newton, laughing.

"Teach him what? Why to leave my watch and spectacles alone. I dare
not lay them down for a moment."

"I think we may teach him that, sir, if it is all that you require."

"I ask no more: then he may go about the house like a tame rabbit. When
will your ship be ready, boy?"

"In about a fortnight, sir. I called upon Captain Oughton the day
before yesterday, but he was not at home. His steward gave me the
information."

"What is the name of the ship?"

"The Windsor Castle, sir."

"Why all the India ships appear to be called Castles. Your last ship
was the Bombay Castle I think?"

"Yes, sir: there are a great many of them so named:--they really are
floating castles."

"And full of ladies. You `castle your queens,' as they do at chess.
Humph!"

A pun from Mr John Forster was a rarity: he never had been known to
make one before: and Newton asserts that he never heard him guilty of it
afterwards. It deserves, therefore, bad as it was, to be recorded.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER SEVEN.

But to stick to my route
'Twill be hard, if some novelty can't be struck out.
Is there no Algerine, no Kamschatkan arrived?
No plenipo-pacha, three tail'd and three wived