"Not in the least," replied Hazlehurst. "You have read this volume often I suppose," he added, turning to the sailor.
"Not I," was the reply; "I ain't given to reading in any shape; my shipmates have read that 'ere book oftener than I have."
"Did you carry it with you in all your voyages?"
"No; I left it ashore half the time."
"How long have you had it in your possession?"
"Since I first went to sea."
"Indeed! that is singular; I should have said, Mr. Clapp," exclaimed Harry, suddenly facing the lawyer, "that only four years since, I read this very volume of the Spectator at Greatwood!"
If Hazlehurst expected Mr. Clapp to betray confusion, he was disappointed.
"You may have read some other volume," was the cool reply; although Harry thought, or fancied, that he traced a muscular movement about the speaker's eyelids, as he uttered the words: "That volume has been in the possession of Mr. Stanley since he first went to sea."
"Is there no other copy of the Spectator at your country-place,
Mrs. Stanley?" asked Mr. Reed.