"Why, don't you remember the old lady at the station whom Rover tumbled down and broke her eggs?" she cried out eagerly. "You must recollect, for you sent her some port wine for her poor daughter, which auntie and I took the second time we went to see her.--You must remember her!" "Ah, yes, I remember now," said the Captain, scratching his head reflectively. "So that's her name, eh--Craddock, Craddock. Where have I heard it before? By Jove, I've got it now! Why, ma'am, there was a Craddock who was boatswain of the old _Bucephalus_ on the West Coast." "What!" cried Mrs Gilmour. "My poor dear Ted's ship?" "The same, ma'am," he answered. "I recollect the man very well now. He was a tall, spare, intellectual-looking chap, more like a longshore man than a sailor. He was delicate, too, suffering from a weak chest; and, Ted told me, now I come to think of it, that he volunteered for a second term of service on the African station in order to be in a warm climate. It didn't do him much good, though, for he died on the commission." "How strange!" said Mrs Gilmour pensively. "I don't remember poor Ted writing me anything about it, but I've no doubt the man was our Mrs Craddock's husband, and, if so, that will make me take an additional interest in her. Run upstairs, Nell, and get ready at once, my dear. As soon as you come down we'll start, for I have only got to put on my bonnet." "Do you want me to come, too?" faltered the Captain, who, unless visiting a sick-bed on an errand of mercy, dreaded going to see any one whom he had been kind to, the old sailor doing all his good deeds, and they were many, by stealth. Indeed, the very idea of being thanked made him always inclined to run away, a thing he had never done from an enemy. "Well, if you'd rather not, or if you've somewhere else to go, I won't insist." "Why, I did promise to go down to the Club," he replied, still speaking in a half-hesitating way. "I--I--I--" "I know," said Mrs Gilmour, interrupting him, and looking very knowing--"you don't want to go to Mrs Craddock's, because you sent her poor daughter some port wine, and are afraid of being thanked for it-- that's the reason, I know." The Captain blushed. "I assure you, ma'am," he began timidly to remonstrate against her conclusion, when suddenly some little recollection gave him renewed courage. "By Jove, I declare I nearly forgot all about it! I've got to meet Sponson at the Club to see when that ship is going out for her trials; I mean the one which I'm going to take Bob on board of." "Well, be off with you to your Club," she rejoined laughing, giving him a little push in joke. "Away with you at once!" "You see, she turns me out," he said humorously to Bob, in a sort of stage aside. "That's what you might call Irish hospitality." He hurried out after his insulting remark, but popped in his head again at the door to make a parting request.