“Then we didn’t lose much by not accompanying you?” she remarked. “I was rather sorry afterwards I was unable to go.”
“Lose anything?” he repeated with emphasis, “I should think not, indeed! If my poor legs could speak, they would tell you that you’ve gained ‘pretty considerably,’ as a Yankee would say, by remaining comfortably here. Hullo, missy, what a splendid posy you’ve got there!”
“Yes, are they not nice?” replied Nellie, on the Captain thus turning the conversation to her collection of wild-flowers, some of which she had arranged tastefully in a big bunch and placed them in her tin bucket filled with water to keep them fresh. “Aunt Polly helped me to gather them.”
“I dare say she told you their names and all about them at the same time, my dear.”
“Oh yes, Captain Dresser,” said Nellie. “She told me lots.”
“Ah!” ejaculated the Captain, heaving a deep sigh of regret. “If I only knew as much as your auntie does of botany, missy, what a clever old chap I should be!”
“Don’t you believe him, Nell!” cried Mrs Gilmour deprecating the compliment. “Captain Dresser knows quite as much as I do about plants and flowers, and a good deal more, too. I only wish he had been here to tell you the story of the ‘Devil’s bit,’ for he would have narrated it in a much better fashion than I did, I’m sure.”
“The divvle a bit of it, ma’am!” exclaimed the old sailor, bursting into a jovial laugh at his joke, wherein even the staid Hellyer joined. “But, a truce to your blarney, ma’am; or, you’ll make me blush. Allow me to inform you that time is getting on; and, unless we make a start for the pier soon, we’ll never catch the steamer and reach home to-night!”