with a lot of other gimcracks; but I certainly had to exercise
a good deal of fancy to imagine a villa out of all these scattered
details, like the Marchioness in Dickens' _Old Curiosity Shop_, which I
was reading the other day, `made believe' about her orange-peel wine!"

"Then we didn't lose much by not accompanying you?" she remarked. "I
was rather sorry afterwards I was unable to go."

"Lose anything?" he repeated with emphasis, "I should think not, indeed!
If my poor legs could speak, they would tell you that you've gained
`pretty considerably,' as a Yankee would say, by remaining comfortably
here. Hullo, missy, what a splendid posy you've got there!"

"Yes, are they not nice?" replied Nellie, on the Captain thus turning
the conversation to her collection of wild-flowers, some of which she
had arranged tastefully in a big bunch and placed them in her tin bucket
filled with water to keep them fresh. "Aunt Polly helped me to gather
them."

"I dare say she told you their names and all about them at the same
time, my dear."

"Oh yes, Captain Dresser," said Nellie. "She told me lots."

"Ah!" ejaculated the Captain, heaving a deep sigh of regret. "If I only
knew as much as your auntie does of botany, missy, what a clever old
chap I should be!"

"Don't you believe him, Nell!" cried Mrs Gilmour deprecating the
compliment. "Captain Dresser knows quite as much as I do about plants
and flowers, and a good deal more, too. I only wish he had been here to
tell you the story of the `Devil's bit,' for he would have narrated it
in a much better fashion than I did, I'm sure."

"The divvle a bit of it, ma'am!" exclaimed the old sailor, bursting into
a jovial laugh at his joke, wherein even the staid Hellyer joined.
"But, a truce to your blarney, ma'am; or, you'll make me blush. Allow
me to inform you that time is getting on; and, unless we make a start
for the pier soon, we'll never catch the steamer and reach home to-
night!"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

WRECKED.

"How's that, sure?" asked Mrs Gilmour. "It's early yet, for the sun's
still overhead."

"You forget, ma'am, our old friend up there is rather a late bird at
this time of year," replied the Captain. "He hasn't crossed the line
yet, you know."

"Well, then," argued the good lady, who was sitting at her ease on a
pile of shawls and wraps, enjoying a second cup of tea which Nell had
just poured out for her, "where's the hurry?"

"Oh, pray take your tim