ther,"
which caused the Captain to give the bonnet an "extra turn," but she
recovered herself and went on--

"With my affairs. I would not have thought of troubling you, but with
poor Lewie so ill, and Dr Lawrence being so young, and probably
inexperienced in the ways of life, and Emma so innocent and helpless,
and--in short I'm--hee!--that is to say--ho dear! I _am_ so silly, but
I can't--indeed I can't--hoo-o-o!"

It blew a regular gale now, and a very rain of straw _debris_ fell
through the cane-bottomed chair on which the Captain sat, as he vainly
essayed to sooth his friend by earnest, pathetic, and even tender
adjurations to "clap a stopper upon that," to "hold hard," to "belay",
to "shut down the dead-lights of her peepers," and such-like expressive
phrases.

At length, amid many sobs, the poor lady revealed the overwhelming fact
that she was a beggar; that she had actually come down to her last
franc; that her man of business had flatly declined to advance her
another sovereign, informing her that the Gorong mine had declared "no
dividend;" that the wreck of her shattered fortune had been swallowed up
by the expenses of their ill-advised trip to Switzerland, and that she
had not even funds enough to pay their travelling expenses home; in
short that she was a miserable boulder, at the lowest level of the
terminal moraine!

To all this Captain Wopper listened in perfect silence, with a blank
expression on his face that revealed nothing of the state of feeling
within.

"Oh! Captain Wopper," exclaimed the poor lady anxiously, "surely--
surely _you_ won't forsake me! I know that I have no claim on you
beyond friendship, but you have always given us to understand that you
were well off, and I merely wish to _borrow_ a small sum. Just enough,
and no more. Perhaps I may not be able to repay you just immediately,
but I hope soon; and even if it came to the worst, there is the
furniture in Euston Square, and the carriage and horses."

Poor Mrs Stoutley! She was not aware that her man of business had
already had these resources appraised, and that they no more belonged to
her at that moment than if they had been part of the personal estate of
the celebrated man in the moon.

Still the Captain gazed at her in stolid silence.

"Even my personal wardrobe," proceeded Mrs Stoutley, beginning again to
weep, "I will gladly dis--"

"Avast! Madam," cried the Captain, suddenly, thrusting his right hand
into his