And now Mary had been long dragging on her weary existence as a music-mistress in London. Miss Primrose’s severe comments on the impropriety of evening walks with cavalry officers led to a dignified rejoinder from her teacher, and the conversation terminated in a small arrear of salary being paid up, and Mary’s wardrobe (with the exception of a certain very handsome dress, afterwards sold cheap as “returned”) being packed for travelling. In London she obtained sufficient employment to keep her from starving, and that was about all. A situation as “Governess in a private family” was advertised for, and again and again she was disappointed in obtaining one, till at length hearing accidentally that Mrs. Kettering was in want of a “finishing governess” for Blanche, Mary Delaval proceeded to the town-house to make inquiries, and failing to obtain even the wished-for address, was returning in hopeless despondency, when she encountered the impertinences we have already detailed, and which were alone wanting to fill the bitter cup of dependency to overflowing. Poor Mary! hers was “a black cloud” through which it was indeed difficult to see “the silver lining.” CHAPTER IV “LIBITINA” THE DROWNING MAN CATCHES AT A BOAT-HOOK--A BRITISH FISHERMAN--THE MOTHER STRUCK DOWN--THE SICK-ROOM--WATCH AND WARD--THE VISITOR THAT WILL NOT BE DENIED--A PRESSING SUITOR--THE CHIEF MOURNER To keep a gentleman waiting any length of time, either in hot water or cold, is decidedly a breach of the laws of politeness, to repair which we must return as speedily as possible to “Cousin Charlie” and his friend, lying somewhat limp and blue at the bottom of “Hairblower’s” dinghy; this worthy, under Providence, having been the means of saving the rash swimmer and the gallant boy who strove to rescue him from an untimely death, which a very few seconds more of submersion would have made a certainty. That Hairblower’s boat-hook should have been ready at the nick of time was one of those “circumstances,” as he called them, which he designated “special,” and turned upon the fact of his having started a party of amateurs in the morning on a sort of marine picnic, from which they had returned prematurely, the gala proving a failure, with no greater loss than that of a spare oar and one or two small casks belonging to the seaman. It was on the hopeless chance of picking up these “waifs and strays” as they drifted down with the tide, that “Hairblower” was paddling about in a shallow skiff, denominated “a dinghy,” when his attention was arrested by an adventurous swimmer striking boldly out at a long distance from the beach. As he said himself, “There’s no depending on these gentlemen, so I thought it very likely I might be wanted, and stood ‘off and on’ till I saw Mr. Hardingstone making signals of distress. It’s no joke that cramp isn’t, half-a-mile out at sea; and I might have been too late with the boat-hook if it hadn’t been for Master Charles--dear,