"What about your articles?" demanded the captain, with sudden loudness. "What do you mean by it?"
Mr. Tasker eyed him forlornly. "It ain't my fault," he said, at last. "I don't want her."
"Eh?" said the other, sternly. "Don't talk nonsense. What do you have her here for, then?"
"Because I can't help myself," said Mr. Tasker, desperately; "that's why. She's took a fancy to me, and, that being so, it would take more than you and me to keep 'er away."
"Rubbish," said his master.
Mr. Tasker smiled wanly. "That's my reward for being steady," he said, with some bitterness; "that's what comes of having a good name in the place. I get Selina Vickers after me."
"You—you must have asked her to come here in the first place," said the astonished captain.
"Ask her?" repeated Mr. Tasker, with respectful scorn. "Ask her? She don't want no asking."
"What does she come for, then?" inquired the other.
"Me," said Mr. Tasker, brokenly. "I never dreamt o' such a thing. I was going 'er way one night—about three weeks ago, it was—and I walked with her as far as her road-Mint Street. Somehow it got put about that we were walking out. A week afterwards she saw me in Harris's, the grocer's, and waited outside for me till I come out and walked 'ome with me. After she came in the other night I found we was keeping company. To-night-tonight she got a ring out o' me, and now we're engaged."