k a blessing upon our victuals?'

The old woman shook her head, kissed the cross which hung from her
rosary, and was silent.

'Mabel will say grace for no heretic,' said the master of the house,
with the same latent sneer on his brow and in his accent.

At the same moment, the side-door already mentioned opened, and the
young woman (so she proved) whom I had first seen at the door of the
cottage, advanced a little way into the room, then stopped bashfully, as
if she had observed that I was looking at her, and asked the master of
the house, 'if he had called?'

'Not louder than to make old Mabel hear me,' he replied; 'and yet,' be
added, as she turned to retire, 'it is a shame a stranger should see a
house where not one of the family can or will say a grace--do thou be
our chaplain.'

The girl, who was really pretty, came forward with timid modesty, and,
apparently unconscious that she was doing anything uncommon,
pronounced the benediction in a silver-toned voice, and with affecting
simplicity--her cheek colouring just so much as to show that on a less
solemn occasion she would have felt more embarrassed.

Now, if thou expectest a fine description of this young woman, Alan
Fairford, in order to entitle thee to taunt me with having found a
Dulcinea in the inhabitant of a fisherman's cottage on the Solway Firth,
thou shalt be disappointed; for, having said she seemed very pretty,
and that she was a sweet and gentle-speaking creature, I have said all
concerning her that I can tell thee. She vanished when the benediction
was spoken.

My host, with a muttered remark on the cold of our ride, and the keen
air of the Solway Sands, to which he did not seem to wish an answer,
loaded my plate from Mabel's grillade, which, with a large wooden bowl
of potatoes, formed our whole meal. A sprinkling from the lemon gave a
much higher zest than the usual condiment of vinegar; and I promise
you that whatever I might hitherto have felt, either of curiosity or
suspicion, did not prevent me from making a most excellent supper,
during which little passed betwixt me and my entertainer, unless that
he did the usual honours of the table with courtesy, indeed, but
without even the affectation of hearty hospitality, which those in his
(apparent) condition generally affect on such occasions, even when they
do not actually feel it. On the contrary, his manner seemed that of a
polished landlord towards an unexpected and unwelcome guest, whom,