"What's up? What's the matter, eh?" demanded the youth of Mr. Quentin, who was now gazing abstractedly at the approaching boat, with a cigarette between his teeth.
"Oh, he did not approve of your conversation; he does not think ladies should be talked about, and all that sort of rubbish."
"Pooh; why not?—and was I not praising her up to the skies? What more could I have said? And I'm sure if you don't mind, he need not!"
"No, but he did," remarked Dr. Malone. "He looked capable just now of tossing you out as a sort of light supper to the sharks, my little C. Green!"
"And a very light meal it would be," said Mr. Green with a broad grin. "Nothing but clothes and bones. Here comes Miss Caggett and a whole lot of people, and won't she just walk into us for not decorating the mess!"
At this instant Miss Caggett and some half-dozen satellites appeared in view, and behind her, walking with Dr. Parkes, came a lady we have never seen before, Mrs. Durand, who had only that morning returned to the settlement.
"Well," cried the sprightly Lizzie, surveying the guilty group with great dignity, "I call this pretty behaviour! What a lazy, selfish, good-for-nothing set!" beginning piano, and ending crescendo.
Dr. Malone nodded his head like a mandarin at each of these adjectives, and declared,—
"So they are, Miss Caggett, so they are. I quite agree with you."
The young lady merely darted a scornful glance in his direction, and proceeded,—