asion. "I pay my way, and that ought to give a man higher
station than being a beggarly captain,--which I don't believe he is,
if all the truth was known." It was thus that he took an occasion to
express himself to Miss Fairstairs on that very evening. "Military
rank is always recognised," Miss Fairstairs had replied, taking Mr
Cheesacre's remarks as a direct slight upon herself. He had taken her
down to dinner, and had then come to her complaining that he had been
injured in being called upon to do so! "If you were a magistrate, Mr
Cheesacre, you would have rank; but I believe you are not." Charlie
Fairstairs knew well what she was about. Mr Cheesacre had striven
much to get his name put upon the commission of the peace, but had
failed. "Nasty, scraggy old cat," Cheesacre said to himself, as he
turned away from her.

But Bellfield gained little by taking the widow down. He and
Cheesacre were placed at the top and bottom of the table, so that
they might do the work of carving; and the ladies sat at the sides.
Mrs Greenow's hospitality was very good. The dinner was exactly
what a dinner ought to be for four persons. There was soup, fish,
a cutlet, a roast fowl, and some game. Jeannette waited at table
nimbly, and the thing could not have been done better. Mrs Greenow's
appetite was not injured by her grief, and she so far repressed for
the time all remembrance of her sorrow as to enable her to play the
kind hostess to perfection. Under her immediate eye Cheesacre was
forced into apparent cordiality with his friend Bellfield, and the
Captain himself took the good things which the gods provided with
thankful good-humour.

Nothing, however, was done at the dinner-table. No work got itself
accomplished. The widow was so accurately fair in the adjustment of
her favours, that even Jeannette could not perceive to which of the
two she turned with the amplest smile. She talked herself and made
others talk, till Cheesacre became almost comfortable, in spite of
his jealousy. "And now," she said, as she got up to leave the room,
when she had taken her own glass of wine, "We will allow these two
gentlemen just half an hour, eh Charlie? and then we shall expect
them up-stairs."

"Ten minutes will be enough for us here," said Cheesacre, who was in
a hurry to utilize his time.

"Half an hour," said Mrs Greenow, not without some little tone of
command in her voice. Ten minutes might be enough for Mr Cheesacre,
but ten minutes was n