ight to take them from him. Dost see, my boy?"

Humfrey reluctantly did see. It was a great favour to be thus argued
with, and admitted of no reply.

Mrs. Talbot's heart rejoiced, but she was not sorry that it was time
for her to carry off Diccon and Ned to their beds, away from the
fascinating narrative, and she would give no respite, though Diccon
pleaded hard. In fact, the danger might be the greatest to him, since
Humfrey, though born within the smell of the sea, might be retained by
the call of duty like his father. To Cis, at least, she thought the
sailor's conversation could do no harm, little foreboding the words
that presently ensued. "And, sir, what befell the babe we found in our
last voyage off the Spurn? It would methinks be about the age of this
pretty mistress."

Richard Talbot endeavoured to telegraph a look both of assent and
warning, but though Master Goatley would have been sharp to detect the
least token of a Spanish galleon on the most distant horizon, the
signal fell utterly short. "Ay, sir. What, is it so? Bless me! The
very maiden! And you have bred her up for your own."

"Sir! Father!" cried Cis, looking from one to the other, with eyes and
mouth wide open.

"Soh!" cried the sailor, "what have I done? I beg your pardon, sir, if
I have overhauled what should have been let alone. But," continued the
honest, but tactless man, "who could have thought of the like of that,
and that the pretty maid never knew it? Ay, ay, dear heart. Never
fear but that the captain will be good father to you all the same."

For Richard Talbot had held out his arm, and, as Cis ran up to him, he
had seated her on his knee, and held her close to him. Humfrey
likewise started up with an impulse to contradict, which was suddenly
cut short by a strange flash of memory, so all he did was to come up to
his father, and grasp one of the girl's hands as fast as he could. She
trembled and shivered, but there was something in the presence of this
strange man which choked back all inquiry, and the silence, the
vehement grasp, and the shuddering, alarmed the captain, lest she might
suddenly go off into a fit upon his hands.

"This is gear for mother," said he, and taking her up like a baby,
carried her off, followed closely by Humfrey. He met Susan coming
down, asking anxiously, "Is she sick?"

"I hope not, mother," he said, "but honest Goatley, thinking no harm,
hath blurted out that which we had never meant