e pan. "She does very well pour passer le temps," the
captain had answered. Mr Cheesacre had not quite understood the exact
gist of the captain's meaning, but had felt certain that his friend
was playing him false.

"I don't want it to be mentioned again, Miss Vavasor," he continued.

"Such things should not be mentioned at all," Kate replied,
having been angered at the insinuation that the nature of Captain
Bellfield's footing could be a matter of any moment to her.

"No, they shouldn't; and therefore I know that I'm quite safe with
you, Miss Vavasor. He's a very pleasant fellow, very; and has seen
the world,--uncommon; but he's better for eating and drinking with
than he is for buying and selling with, as we say in Norfolk. Do you
like Norfolk, Miss Vavasor?"

"I never was in it before, and now I've only seen Yarmouth."

"A nice place, Yarmouth, very; but you should come up and see our
lands. I suppose you don't know that we feed one-third of England
during the winter months."

"Dear me!"

"We do, though; nobody knows what a county Norfolk is. Taking it
altogether, including the game you know, and Lord Nelson, and its
watering-places and the rest of it, I don't think there's a county
in England to beat it. Fancy feeding one-third of all England and
Wales!"

"With bread and cheese, do you mean, and those sort of things?"

"Beef!" said Mr Cheesacre, and in his patriotic energy he repeated
the word aloud. "Beef! Yes indeed; but if you were to tell them that
in London they wouldn't believe you. Ah! you should certainly come
down and see our lands. The 7.45 A.M. train would take you through
Norwich to my door, as one may say, and you would be back by the 6.22
P.M." In this way he brought himself back again into good-humour,
feeling, that in the absence of the widow, he could not do better
than make progress with the niece.

In the mean time Mrs Greenow and the captain were getting on very
comfortably in the other boat. "Take an oar, Captain," one of the
men had said to him as soon as he had placed the ladies. "Not to-day,
Jack," he had answered. "I'll content myself with being bo'san this
morning." "The best thing as the bo'san does is to pipe all hands to
grog," said the man. "I won't be behind in that either," said the
captain; and so they all went on swimmingly.

"What a fine generous fellow your friend, Mr Cheesacre, is!" said the
widow.

"Yes, he is; he's a capital fellow in his way. Some of these Norf