seemed as though Emily were not at home
either, for the visitor could make nobody hear. Customers came so seldom
hither that a five minutes' absence of the proprietor counted for little.
Joanna waited in the little shop, where Emily had tastefully set out--as
women can--articles in themselves of slight value, so as to obscure the
meagreness of the stock-in-trade; till she saw a figure pausing without
the window apparently absorbed in the contemplation of the sixpenny
books, packets of paper, and prints hung on a string. It was Captain
Shadrach Jolliffe, peering in to ascertain if Emily were there alone.
Moved by an impulse of reluctance to meet him in a spot which breathed of
Emily, Joanna slipped through the door that communicated with the parlour
at the back. She had frequently done so before, for in her friendship
with Emily she had the freedom of the house without ceremony.

Jolliffe entered the shop. Through the thin blind which screened the
glass partition she could see that he was disappointed at not finding
Emily there. He was about to go out again, when Emily's form darkened
the doorway, hastening home from some errand. At sight of Jolliffe she
started back as if she would have gone out again.

'Don't run away, Emily; don't!' said he. 'What can make ye afraid?'

'I'm not afraid, Captain Jolliffe. Only--only I saw you all of a sudden,
and--it made me jump!' Her voice showed that her heart had jumped even
more than the rest of her.

'I just called as I was passing,' he said.

'For some paper?' She hastened behind the counter.

'No, no, Emily; why do ye get behind there? Why not stay by me? You
seem to hate me.'

'I don't hate you. How can I?'

'Then come out, so that we can talk like Christians.'

Emily obeyed with a fitful laugh, till she stood again beside him in the
open part of the shop.

'There's a dear,' he said.

'You mustn't say that, Captain Jolliffe; because the words belong to
somebody else.'

'Ah! I know what you mean. But, Emily, upon my life I didn't know till
this morning that you cared one bit about me, or I should not have done
as I have done. I have the best of feelings for Joanna, but I know that
from the beginning she hasn't cared for me more than in a friendly way;
and I see now the one I ought to have asked to be my wife. You know,
Emily, when a man comes home from sea after a long voyage he's as blind
as a bat--he can't see who's who in women. They are all a