here the curers lived;
whether they gave the fishermen credit and cheated them; whether the
people about here made any use of the back of the dog-fish, or could,
in hard seasons, cook any of the wild-fowl; what the ling and the cod
and the skate fetched; where the wives and daughters sat and spun
and carded their wool; whether they knew how to make a good dish of
cockles boiled in milk. She smiled to herself when she thought of
asking Mrs. Lorraine about any such things; but she still cherished
some vague hope that before she left Brighton she would have some
little chance of getting near to the sea and learning a little of the
sea-life down in the South.

And as they drove along the King's road on this afternoon she suddenly
called out, "Look, Frank!"

On the steps of the Old Ship Hotel stood a small man with a brown
face, a brown beard and a beaver hat, who was calmly smoking a wooden
pipe, and looking at an old woman selling oranges in front of him.

"It is Mr. Ingram," said Sheila.

"Which is Mr. Ingram?" asked Mrs. Lorraine with considerable interest,
for she had often heard Lavender speak of his friend. "Not that little
man?"

"Yes," said Lavender coldly: he could have wished that Ingram had had
some little more regard for appearances in so public a place as the
main thoroughfare of Brighton.

"Won't you stop and speak to him?" said Sheila with great surprise.

"We are late already," said her husband. "But if you would rather go
back and speak to him than go on with us, you may."

Sheila said nothing more; and so they drove on to the end of the
Parade, where Lady Leveret held possession of a big white house with
pillars overlooking the broad street and the sea.

But next morning she said to him, "I suppose you will be riding with
Mrs. Lorraine this morning?"

"I suppose so."

"I should like to go and see Mr. Ingram, if he is still there," she
said.

"Ladies don't generally call at hotels and ask to see gentlemen; but
of course you don't care for that."

"I shall not go if you do not wish me."

"Oh, nonsense! You may as well go. What is the use of professing
to keep observances that you don't understand? And it will be some
amusement for you, for I dare say both of you will immediately go and
ask some old cab-driver to have luncheon with you, or buy a nosegay of
flowers for his horse."

The permission was not very gracious, but Sheila accepted it, and
very shortly after breakfast she changed he