“You know, that when my protector and predecessor abandoned the land, he took his all with him upon the water.”
“He took a wholesome and good-going schooner, Master Skimmer, with an assorted freight of chosen tobacco, well ballasted with stones from off the seashore. He was no foolish admirer of sea-green women, and flaunting brigantines. Often did the royal cruisers mistake the worthy dealer for an industrious fisherman!”
“He had his humors, and I have mine. But you forget a part of the freight he carried;—a part that was not the least valuable.”
“There might have been a bale of marten’s furs—for the trade was just getting brisk in that article.”
“There was a beautiful, an innocent, and an affectionate girl———”
The Alderman made an involuntary movement which nearly hid his countenance from his companion.
“There was, indeed, a beautiful, and, as you say, a most warm-hearted girl, in the concern!” he uttered, in a voice that was subdued and hoarse. “She died, as I have heard from thyself, Master Skimmer, in the Italian seas. I never saw the father, after the last visit of his child to this coast.”
“She did die, among the islands of the Mediterranean. But the void she left in the hearts of all who knew her, was filled, in time, by her—daughter.”
The Alderman started from his chair, and, looking the free-trader intently and anxiously in the face, he slowly repeated the word—
“Daughter!”