Once in their room Mistress Eliza and her husband argued over the situation until both were exhausted.
“He’s a handsome man, anyway,” said the lady at last, as she brushed her little wisp of gray-yellow hair before the oval mirror. “I wonder if Matilda——?”
Francis, who was already tucked in his side of the huge four-poster bed, growled through the curtains, and Mistress Eliza bit her lip.
“He’ll make a difference to the price of tea hereabouts, I’ll warrant,” she said, after a minute’s silence, as she blew out the candles and opened the casement.
Francis grunted.
“Methinks he’ll be a deal of nuisance to the trade,” he said bitterly. “No more cheap tabac—God help us.”
Mistress Eliza echoed his sigh, and they settled themselves to sleep.
CHAPTER XV
“THERE, look, there now, will that be the Coldlight—Anny, I mean?”
Anny paused in her walk and stared out across the bay. Hal followed the direction of her hand and then shook his head.