he had arrived with them an hour
before. Mrs. Godstone had therefore been enabled to resume her usual
attire, and to lend an outfit to Mrs. Murchison. Jack did not in the
least recognize in the three ladies the soaked and draggled women, of
whose faces he had caught but a slight glimpse on the previous day.

"We have come round, Mrs. Robson," Mrs. Godstone began, "to thank your
son for his share in saving our lives yesterday. We thought that it
would be more pleasant to him than coming round to us at the inn."

"Thank you, madam," Mrs. Robson replied. "It was kind of you to think of
it. I have had a good deal of trouble in persuading Jack to go round. He
was just starting; but it was very much against the grain, I can assure
you. Come in, please."

Mrs. Godstone was surprised at the tone in which this fisher lad's
mother spoke, for during her thirteen years of married life Bessy Robson
had lost the Essex dialect, and acquired the manners of her husband's
friends. She was still more surprised at the pretty furniture of the
room, which was tastefully decorated, and the walls hung with pictures
of marine subjects, for Bessy had brought down bodily her belongings
from Dulwich. Mrs. Godstone at once walked up to Jack with outstretched
hand.

"I hope you are none the worse for your exertions of yesterday," she
said. "My daughter and I have come round to thank you for the very great
service you rendered us."

Mrs. Murchison and Mildred Godstone also shook hands with Jack. The
former added her thanks to Mrs. Godstone's.

Jack coloured up hotly and said, "It is my uncle you have to thank,
ma'am. It was his bawley, and he and Tom sailed it, and I had nothing to
do with it one way or the other."

"Except when you swam out for the line," Mrs. Godstone said smiling.

"I had one tied round me, and was all right," Jack protested.

"My husband does not think it was nothing, as you seem to consider,"
Mrs. Murchison said; "and as he has been a sailor all his life he ought
to know. He says that it was a very gallant action in such a sea as
that, and, you see, we are bound to believe him."

The ladies had now taken seats. Mrs. Godstone felt a little at a loss.
Had Jack's home and Jack's mother been what they had expected to find
them the matter would have been simple enough, but she felt at once that
any talk of reward for the service Jack had rendered them would be at
present impossible.

"What a pretty room you have got, Mrs