"I wonder you never
married, yourself--you talk such nonsense! But you're in spirits
to-day, as any one can see." She glanced at the broad back of Captain
Tobias, who stood a few paces away, with legs planted wide and gaze
still wrapped in contemplation of the gasometer. "Makin' so bold, sir,
is that your friend we've heard tell so much about?"

"It is, ma'am," Captain Cai turned about to call up 'Bias to be
introduced, when Mr Tregaskis gently checked him, laying a hand on the
musical box.

"I didn' think it worth mentionin' at the time, sir; but these
instruments aren't intended for carryin' about."

"No, no," Captain Cai agreed hastily. "Here, 'Bias! Look around an' see
who's the first to welcome ye! Tregaskis, of all men! And this here's
his missus."

"How d'e do, Mr Tregaskis," said Captain Tobias, shaking hands. He knew
the mate of the _Hannah Hoo_, and respected him for a capable seaman.
"I hope I see you well, ma'am?"

"Nicely, sir, thank you!" Mrs Tregaskis curtseyed and beamed.

But Captain Tobias, though with her, too, he shook hands politely
enough, was plainly preoccupied. "'Tis a wonderful invention," said he.
"You just let the gas run in, an' then it is ready for use at any time.
I hadn't a notion you was so up-to-date here."

Mr Tregaskis looked puzzled. "It don't work by _gas_. You wind it up
with a cog arrangement, which acts on a spring coil, I'm told--just like
the inside of a watch. But we can see by liftin' up the lid."

"Eh?" Captain Tobias glanced back over his shoulder.

"But as I was tellin' the boss, 'twas never _intended_ for a country
walk. You sets it down at home and calls for a tune--as it might be
drinks," continued Mr Tregaskis lucidly.

Captain Cai touched his friend's elbow. "You're talkin' o' different
things, you two," he explained in a nervous haste, anxious to get off
delicate ground. "Tregaskis was alludin' to--er--this here; which" he
concluded, "nobody could have been more taken aback than I was this
mornin' . . . when it happened."

"You don't say that's the musical box!" cried Mrs Tregaskis.
"Now, don't you agree, sir"--she appealed to Captain Tobias--"with what
I said to William at dinner-time, when he told me about the presentation
and the speeches? [Here Captain Cai shot a look at his mate, who
flushed but kept his eyes averted, pretending carelessness.] I said
that for a lot of ignorant seamen 'twas quite a happy thought, an'
nobody could s