ts
claw, told me that he knew the old Jew's shop where that bad fellow had
bought it, and to a certainty that he had not given more than a shilling
for it. All this was very provoking, and made me begin to think very
differently of him to what I had done at first. I did fancy that he
might have had some regard for an old friend." And the old lady drew
herself up and uttered a gentle sigh. "Such a dream was soon blown to
the winds," she continued. "I found that he was constantly going and
calling at Mrs Sandon's, and very often he did not look in on me at
all. It did not seem to me, however, that Margaret liked him, though I
think her aunt thought well of him, and encouraged him to come to the
house. He had never spoken of you, I found, till one day I mentioned
your name, when he said, `Ah, poor fellow! he was a great friend of
mine. I first got him a ship, and helped to make a sailor of him. I
was very sorry to lose him.'

"`How lose him?' asked Miss Margaret gently. Then he told them how you
had been sent away in a boat expedition in Teneriffe, to cut out some
prizes, and that the boat you were in had been knocked to pieces, and
that you had been either killed by the shot of the enemy or drowned, and
that nothing since had been heard of you."

"I cannot blame Charley, then," said I to Miss Rundle. "I have no doubt
that he fully believed the statement he made. Had I not succeeded in
getting on board another vessel, I should have been drowned, and we have
never met since. But what occurred after this?--go on."

"You shall hear. When he saw that Miss Margaret took some interest in
you, he began to talk of you in a disparaging way, as a poor sort of a
fellow, easily led, and that you had all sorts of strange fancies, which
he said he supposed had come to you with the northern blood which flowed
in your veins, and then he spoke in no complimentary way of Scotland and
the Orkney and Shetland people. He said he forgot to which you
belonged. I saw the colour come into Miss Margaret's cheeks. `I belong
to Shetland myself,' said she. `It is a country I love dearly.' On
this, the young man began to apologise, and said that he was speaking
without consideration; that he had known one bad Orkney man, and that
was all, whereas he had known hundreds of bad Englishmen, and he hoped
Miss Margaret would pardon him. She bowed, but said nothing. He did
his best to make amends for what he had said, and certainly if a