him afterwards. He did not kiss her once;
and she almost wished that he had offered one--one little tribute of
affection (as the Valentines express it)--as soon as he was gone, and
the crisis of not knowing what to do was past. "I should have let him--I
believe I should," she reflected, sagely recovering herself; "but how
glad I ought to be that he didn't! And I do hope he won't come back
again. The next time I meet him, I shall sink into the earth."

For her hat had fallen off, and her hair was out of order, and she saw
two crinkles near the buckle of her waist; and she had not so much as a
looking-glass to be sure that she looked nice again. With a heavy sigh
for all these woes, she gathered a flossy bud of willow, and fixed it on
her breast-knot, to defy the world; and then, without heed of the sea,
sun, or sands, went home with short breath, and quick blushes, and some
wonder; for no man's arm, except her father's, had ever been round her
waist till now.

CHAPTER XLIII

LITTLE AND GREAT PEOPLE

If ever a wise man departed from wisdom, or a sober place from sobriety,
the man was John Prater, and the place Springhaven, towards the middle
of June, 1804. There had been some sharp rumours of great things before;
but the best people, having been misled so often, shook their heads
without produce of their contents; until Captain Stubbard came out in
his shirt sleeves one bright summer morning at half past nine, with a
large printed paper in one hand and a slop basin full of hot paste in
the other. His second boy, George, in the absence of Bob (who was now
drawing rations at Woolwich), followed, with a green baize apron on, and
carrying a hearth-brush tied round with a string to keep the hair stiff.

"Lay it on thick on the shutter, my son. Never mind about any other
notices, except the one about young men wanted. No hurry; keep your
elbow up; only don't dab my breeches, nor the shirt you had on Sunday."

By this time there were half a dozen people waiting; for this shutter of
Widow Shanks was now accepted as the central board and official panel
of all public business and authorised intelligence. Not only because all
Royal Proclamations, Offers of reward, and Issues of menace were
posted on that shutter and the one beyond the window (which served as
a postscript and glossary to it), but also inasmuch as the kind-hearted
Captain, beginning now to understand the natives--which was not to be
done pugnaciously, as