This explained the housekeeper's joyous spirits, which seemed to bubble over in her.
"She's a nice old gal," said Robinson to himself, as he mounted the stairs, "and I'll stand her a trifle after I have applied my leech to her master again. Ha, ha, ha!"
The jovial captain laughed at the quaint conceit.
He rarely enjoyed the prospect of once more gloating over the miserable Murray writhing under the moral pressure.
"I'll make him bleed handsome for keeping away so long," thought this jovial mariner. "I wonder how he'll enjoy the leech after such a long while?"
His hand rested upon the handle of the door.
What a startler it would be for Mr. Murray.
"I'll knock," thought the jovial Captain Robinson; "he'll think it's Mother Wilmot again. Such larks!"
He knocked.
"Come in."