emselves as to the welcome he might receive from the wife of his bosom
when a comely young lady was to be included in it.

"She'll no jeest like it at first," he muttered, half aloud; and as the
moment approached and apprehension intensified, he repeated the remark
still louder.

This moderate expectation was amply justified by the event. The good lady
received the explanatory introduction with a snort, and a countenance
expressive of contempt and disbelief, while she ironically "feared there
would be nothing in the house good enough for her."

Bluebell endeavoured to excuse her unlucky presence, the best argument
she could think of being that she would advertise for another situation
immediately. Only for the fear of offending the captain, she would have
added that she was prepared to pay for her board, which, by putting it on
a business footing, would doubtless have commended itself to the dominant
passion of her hostess's mind, and dispersed the misgivings she at
present entertained of this "fine madam."

The general stiffness was relieved by the boisterous greetings of the
captain's boys, who had just rushed in from school; but it was a terrible
evening to Bluebell, feeling _de trop_, and unable to calculate how soon
she should be released.

"Ye'll jeest put her in Phemie's room," the skipper had said. (Phemie was
a daughter lately married.) "How will I do that," was the responding
retort, "when the carpet is up, and the iron bedstead was broke by Rab a
week syne?"

"Well, then, Rab will jeest let her have his bed," said the captain,
equably brewing himself some whiskey-and-water,--and so on through the
evening, during which Mrs. Davidson by no means softened the trouble and
inconvenience Bluebell's presence occasioned, whose spirits fell to their
lowest depth.

Was it to be wondered at that Harry Dutton recurred pretty constantly to
her mind? She could think calmly now of the proposal that had so startled
her before. It was, at any rate, a sincere, straightforward offer of
marriage, and so far he contrasted favourably with Bertie, whom she had
determined to forget. But, then, she had dismissed him--he had gone away
to his uncle's, and they would probably never meet again; and as when a
thing is out of reach it becomes immediately enhanced in value, she began
to regret her lost lover, and to think that there, perhaps, might have
been a short cut out of her difficulties. We are aware that this unlucky
admissi