n her corner embroidering with gold thread a
pair of red morocco slippers. But, forewarned though she was, her
presence of mind was put to a tremendous test when, all unexpectedly,
George Foster descended the steps and stood before her. Fortunately,
while the youth was bestowing a hearty nautical greeting on Mrs Lilly--
for his greeting was always hearty, as well to new acquaintances as to
old friends--Hester had time to bend over her work and thus conceal the
sudden pallor followed by an equally sudden flush which changed her
complexion from a bluish grey to a burnt sienna. When George turned to
glance carelessly at her she was totally absorbed in the slipper.

The negro watched the midshipman's glance with keen interest. When he
saw that only a passing look was bestowed on Hester, and that he then
turned his eyes with some interest to the hole where Sally was pounding
coffee and gasping away with her wonted energy, he said to himself
mentally, "Ho, Dinah, but you _am_ a cleber woman! Geo'ge don't rignise
her more'n if she was a rigler coloured gal! I do b'lieve her own
fadder wouldn't know her!"

He then proceeded to have a talk with Mrs Lilly, and while he was thus
engaged the middy, who had an inquiring disposition, began to look round
the cellar and take mental-artistic notes of its appearance. Then he
went up to Hester, and, taking up one of the finished slippers, examined
it.

"Most beautiful! Exquisite!" he said. "Does it take you long to do
this sort of thing?"

The girl did not reply.

"She's dumb!" said Peter quickly.

"Ah, poor thing!" returned Foster, in a voice of pity. "Deaf, too, I
suppose?"

"Well, I don't know as to dat, Geo'ge."

"Is this one dumb too?" asked the middy, pointing to the coffee-hole.

"Oh dear no!" interposed Lilly. "Sally a'n't dumb; she's awrful sharp
with 'er tongue!"

"She ought to be deaf anyhow, considering the row she kicks up down
there!"

"Come now, Geo'ge, it's time we was goin'. So pick up de baskit an' go
ahead."

Bidding Mrs Lilly an affectionate adieu, the two shaves left the
cellar, to the intense relief of poor Hester, who scarce knew whether to
laugh or cry over the visit. She had been so eagerly anxious to speak
to Foster, yet had managed to keep her promise in spite of the
peculiarly trying circumstances.

"Peter," said the middy, when they had got well out of the town on their
way home, "what made you say `dumb' so emphatically when you