Chapter Nine.
Kind Mrs Judson had gone to her own house. Jessie was seated at her work near the window for the sake of the light on an evening in the spring of the year, when she saw a man in a sailor’s dress pass the garden gate, then stop and make inquiries of a passer by. Presently he came back, and opening the gate, knocked at the door. Her heart beat violently. He was a stranger, not at all like Ralph; but could he have brought news of him? She flew to open the door.
“Beg pardon, ma’am; are you Jessie Flamank?” asked the stranger, pulling off his hat with a sailor’s courtesy.
“Oh, who are you? Oh, tell me why you have come!” exclaimed Jessie, scarcely able in her agitation to utter the words.
“Why, do you see, I’m an old shipmate of one you knew once upon a time, and I thought as now I was at Plymouth I’d come and look you up and see how you were getting on, and have a talk about him,” answered the man, stepping in as Jessie made way for him.
“Then do you bring me no news of him—of Ralph Michelmore?” she asked, in a trembling voice.
“Not what you may call news; seeing as how it’s better than two years since I last set eyes on my old messmate,” answered the stranger, taking a chair, while Jessie, unable to support herself, sank into the one she had left. “He told me all about you,” he continued, “how you were to be married when he was pressed along with me and others, and so I came to know you: and, said I to myself, now that he’s gone, poor fellow, and she’s all forlorn-like, maybe, I’ll try and comfort her a bit.”
Poor Jessie! This strange address from the rough sailor, though apparently kindly meant, had anything but the effect intended, for she burst into tears.
“Now don’t take on so,” said the sailor, “I didn’t think as how I’d have made you cry, or I wouldn’t have talked about Ralph. Maybe he wasn’t lost with the old Falcon. I’ve known men turn up after ever so many years, whom I thought fathoms deep below the waves long afore. Not but what he’d have been sure to come back to you if he could, that’s certain.”
“You have not told me who you are. How did you escape from the shipwreck?” said Jessie, at length becoming calm enough to speak.