unable to suggest anything.

"Oh, Mr. Dutton," she cried, "do go and tell the captain, and ask him
what I had better do! He is sure to think of something,--for a day or
two, at any rate."

The young man looked up with a strange smile, but there were other
persons present. "Certainly," he said, with rather a constrained manner.
"I will go and tell him,"--and Bluebell, mistaking his reserve for
coolness, felt disappointed.

The captain was very busy, and not too well pleased at being interrupted,
but when he had mastered the intelligence he gave it his whole attention
directly.

"Eh, the puir lassie!" he ejaculated, "wha's to become of her!"

"There's only one thing that I can do," said the lieutenant, briefly.

"You!" said the skipper, whose remark had been an exclamation, not an
interrogation. "What the mischief could you do? I am doubting what the
guidwife will say, but I am thinking I must _jeest_ take her home."

"Oh, how good of you, sir!" said the young man, seizing his hand,
unobservant of the dry cynical look in his eyes. "But I trust it will not
be for long, as I must tell you, in confidence, if she will only consent,
I intend--I hope to marry Miss Leigh immediately."

"You be d--d! I will have no such goings on. If the lassie comes to me,
she will act conformable; and, if you think you are in a position to
maintain a wife, you may consult your _feymily_; I'll have no such
responsibility."

"You are, of course omnipotent in your own ship," said the young sailor,
angrily, "but you need not forget you are speaking to a gentleman."

"As far as I can see they are no honester than other people. I only
belong to the respectable class myself, and I'll no have it."

"What a fool I was to tell you! But surely," half laughing, "matrimony is
an honourable institution."

"I kenna--I kenna. I'll give the bairn shelter till she hears from her
kin, but I'll have no marrying or such like, to be called to account for
mayhap afterwards."

But Mr. Dutton, only made more eager by opposition, sprang away to the
saloon, where Bluebell was sitting.

"Yes, I have a message for you," said he, in answer to her inquiring
look. "Will you come on deck? Here are your cloak and hood."

He led her away, with rather a pale face, to the most secluded part of
it.

"What did the captain say?" she asked.

"The captain is a canny, suspicious, pigheaded old Scottish-man!"

"Of course, of course," very despondingly, "no one can d