ct counterpart of the cabin itself. There
was the same low roof, the same little fireplace, with the space above
for ornaments, and the same couple of little windows looking out upon a
stretch of the noble river, from which you might have fished. There was
the same colour of paint on the walls, which had been so managed as to
represent the dinginess of antiquity. There was also, to all
appearance, Mrs Roby's own identical bed, with its chintz curtains.
Here, however, resemblance ended, for there was none of the Grubb's
Court dirt. The craft on the river were not so large or numerous, the
reach being above the bridges. If you had fished you not have hooked
rats or dead cats, and if you had put your head out and looked round,
you would have encountered altogether a clean, airy, and respectable
neighbourhood, populous enough to be quite cheery, with occasional
gardens instead of mud-banks, and without interminable rows of tall
chimney-pots excluding the light of heaven.

Gillie, not yet having been quite cured of his objectionable qualities,
at once apostrophised his eye and Elizabeth Martin.

"As like as two peas, barrin' the dirt!"

The Captain evidently enjoyed the lad's astonishment.

"A ship-shape sort o' craft, ain't it? It wouldn't be a bad joke to buy
it--eh?"

Gillie, who was rather perplexed, but too much a man of the world to
disclose much of his state of mind, said that it wouldn't be a bad move
for any feller who had got the blunt. "How much would it cost now?"

"A thousand pounds, more or less," said the Captain, with discreet
allowance for latitude.

"Ha! a goodish lump, no doubt."

"I've half a mind to buy it," continued the Captain, looking round with
a satisfied smile. "It would be an amoosin' sort o' thing, now, to
bring old Mrs Roby here. The air would be fresher for her old lungs,
wouldn't it?"

Gillie nodded, but was otherwise reticent.

"The stair, too, wouldn't be too high to get her down now and again, and
a boat could be handy to shove her into without much exertion. For the
matter of that," said the Captain, looking out, "we might have a slide
made, like a Swiss couloir, you know, and she could glissade comfortably
into the boat out o' the winder. Then, there's a beam to hang her ship
an' Chinee lanterns from, an' a place over the fireplace to stick her
knick-knacks. What d'ee think, my lad?"

Gillie, who had begun to allow a ray of light to enter his mind, gave,
as his