ndsome bow, so that she had a
little to spare for charitable purposes. It must not be supposed,
however, that the good lady was possessed of a small fortune. The
"circumstances," which were easy to her, would have proved remarkably
uneasy to many; but she possessed the rare and tailorly quality of being
able and willing to cut her coat according to her cloth. There was no
deeper mystery than that in the "ease" with which we have characterised
her "circumstances."

The coast of Kent was her locality; the environs of the town of Deal,
her neighbourhood; and a small--almost miniature but pretty--cottage,
her habitation. The cottage stood in the middle of a little garden,
close to that wide extent of waste land, lying to the north of Deal,
which is known by the name of the Sandhills, and on the seaward edge of
which formerly stood the pile--and now lie the remains--of Sandown
Castle.

Everything in and around the cottage was remarkably neat--including its
mistress, who, on the evening of the day in which her son sailed with
Bax in the "Nancy," was seated at a little table in her small parlour,
summing up an account on a sheet of note-paper,--an operation which
appeared to cause her much perplexity, if one might judge from her
knitted brows, her deep sighs, and her frequent remarks of "it won't
do," and "what _can_ it be?"

These observations were apparently addressed to the cat, which sat in
front of the fire, watching the tea-kettle and the buttered toast; but
although the good lady was addicted to talking to her cat, in a general
way, about her love for it and its state of health, we cannot suppose
that she really appealed to it on such a grave subject as arithmetical
calculation. If she did she got no answer from the cat--not even a sign
of recognition; but she did from a bright-faced, fair-haired girl, of
about eighteen, who at that moment entered the room, with a teapot in
one hand, and a cream-jug in the other.

"What is it that puzzles you, mamma?" said the girl, setting down the
pot and jug, and preparing to attend to the duties of the tea-table.

To this Mrs Foster replied, in an absent way, that she didn't know,
that it was quite beyond her comprehension, and that she was utterly
perplexed; but that she _would_ find it out, if she should sit all night
over it. Whereupon she proceeded to state that "three and two made
five, and seven made--made"--she wasn't quite sure how much that made,
until her compa