he bargain, too. Three hundred pounds and a handsome, black-eyed
wife. I wish she hadn't such a devil of a temper. I'll take her home
to the farm, and if mother doesn't break her in she'll be the first she
ever failed with."

Mr. Parmalee retired betimes, slept soundly, and was up in the gray
day-dawn. Breakfast, piping hot, smoked on the table when Mrs. Denover
appeared.

"Eat, drink and be merry," said Mr. Parmalee. "Go in and win. Try
that under-done steak, and don't took quite so much like the ghost of
Hamlet's father, if you can help it."

The woman tried with touching humility to please him, and did her best,
but that best was a miserable failure.

A cab came for them in half an hour, and whirled them off on the first
stage of their journey.

In the golden light of the spring afternoon Mr. Parmalee made his
appearance again at the Blue Bell Inn, with a veiled lady, all in
black, hanging on his arm.

"This here lady is my maiden aunt, come over from the State of Maine to
see your British institutions," Mr. Parmalee said, in fluent fiction,
to the obsequious landlady. "She's writing a book, and she'll mention
the Blue Bell favorably in it. Her name is Miss Hepzekiah Parmalee.
Let her have your best bedroom and all the luxuries this hotel affords,
and I will foot the bill."

He lighted a cigar and sallied forth.

"Miss Hepzekiah Parmalee" dined alone in her own room; then sat by the
window, with white face and strained eyes, waiting for Mr. Parmalee's
return.

It was almost dark when he came. He entered hurriedly, flushed and
excited.

"Fortune favors us this bout, Mrs. Denover," he said, "I've met an old
chum down on the wharf yonder--a countryman--and I'd as soon have
expected to find the President of the United States in this little
one-horse town. His name's Davis--Captain Davis, of the schooner
'Angelina Dobbs'--and he's going to sail for Southampton this very
night. There's a streak of luck. A free passage for you and for me up
to Southampton to-night."

"But my--Lady Kingsland?" she faltered.

"I've made that all right, too. I met one of the flunkies and sent
word to Sybilla that we were here, and that she'd better see us at
once. I expect an answer every---- Ah, by George! speak of the--here
she is!"

It was Miss Sybilla Silver, sailing gracefully down the street. Mr.
Parmalee darted out and met her--superbly handsome, her dark cheeks
flushed with some inward excitement, her