Fraser shook his head. “No, I’m not shy,” he said, quietly.
“Because Emma didn’t know you were coming,” continued Miss Tyrell, “and she’s always shy. So you must be bold, you know.”
The mate nodded as confidently as he could. “Shyness has never been one of my failings,” he said, nervously.
Further conversation was rendered difficult, if not impossible, by one which now took place outside. It was conducted between a small Wheeler on the top of the stairs and Mrs. Wheeler in the parlour below. The subject was hairpins, an article in which it appeared Miss Wheeler was lamentably deficient, owing, it was suggested, to a weakness of Mrs. Wheeler’s for picking up stray ones and putting them in her hair. The conversation ended in Mrs. Wheeler, whose thin voice was heard hotly combating these charges, parting with six, without prejudice; and a few minutes later Miss Wheeler, somewhat flushed, entered the room and was introduced to the mate.
“All ready?” enquired Flower, as Miss Tyrell drew on her gloves.
They went downstairs in single file, the builder of the house having left no option in the matter, while the small Wheelers, breathing hard with excitement, watched them over the balusters. Outside the house the two ladies paired off, leaving the two men to follow behind.
The mate noticed, with a strong sense of his own unworthiness, that the two ladies seemed thoroughly engrossed in each other’s company, and oblivious to all else. A suggestion from Flower that he should close up and take off Miss Wheeler, seemed to him to border upon audacity, but he meekly followed Flower as that bold mariner ranged himself alongside the girls, and taking two steps on the curb and three in the gutter, walked along for some time trying to think of something to say.
“There ain’t room for four abreast,” said Flower, who had been scraping against the wall. “We’d better split up into twos.”
At the suggestion the ladies drifted apart, and Flower, taking Miss Tyrell’s arm, left the mate behind with Miss Wheeler, nervously wondering whether he ought to do the same.
“I hope it won’t rain,” he said, at last.