heavily.

"Fancy! We are engaged now," she said, squeezing his arm and looking up
at him.

Mr. Walters, who seemed to be in a state of considerable perturbation,
made no reply.

"Fancy you being in such a hurry!" continued Rosa, with another squeeze.

"It's a failing of mine," said the boatswain, still staring straight
before him. "Always was."

CHAPTER XVI

JOAN HARTLEY'S ideas of London, gathered from books and illustrated
papers, were those of a town to which her uncle and aunt were utter
strangers. Mr. William Carr knew Cornhill and the adjacent district
thoroughly, and thirty or forty years before had made periodical
descents upon the West-end. He left home at half-past eight every
morning and returned every evening at five minutes to six, except on
Saturdays, when he returned at ten minutes past three, and spent his
half holiday in the dining-room reading an early edition of the evening
paper. Any paragraphs relating to Royalty were read aloud to his wife,
who knew not only all the members of the English Royal Family by name,
but also those dignitaries abroad who had the happiness to be connected
with it in marriage. She could in all probability have given the King
himself much useful information as to the ages and fourth and fifth
Christian names of some of the later and more remote members of his
family.

Her day was as regular and methodical as her husband's. The morning was
devoted to assisting and superintending the general servant for the time
being; after dinner, at one o'clock, she retired upstairs to dress and
went down to the shops to make a few purchases, returning in good time
to give her husband tea. The early part of the evening was devoted to
waiting for supper; the latter part to waiting for bed.

During the first week of Joan's visit an agreeable thrill was
communicated to the household by preparations for an evening, or perhaps
an afternoon and evening, in town. The event came off--in the third week
of her stay--on a wet Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Carr and Joan got wet
walking to the omnibus, and wetter still waiting at one corner of the
Bank of England for Mr. Carr, who was getting wet at another.

[Illustration: Corner of the Bank of England 202]

Mr. Carr, who was in holiday attire, was smoking a large cigar in honour
of the occasion, which he extinguished upon entering an omnibus and
re-lighted at the Zoological Gardens. By the aid of careful manipulation
and the rain it las