"With some idle stroller,--you may be sure of that!" interrupted the hostess:--"never at his place, if the whole house should go dry as Cuthbert's spring at midsummer. Call him to me, if you please, Master Shortgrass.--Michael Curtis, that wench Matty Scamper has something to do besides listen to your claverings! Matty, begone to the kitchen; these country cattle will want their suppers presently.--Oh, Willy, Willy o' the Flats!--for the sake of one's ears, in mercy, stop that everlasting twangling of your old crowd!--It would disgrace the patience of any Christian woman in the world to abide in the midst of all this uproar!--Nay then, come forward, old crony--I would not offend thee," she said in a milder tone to the fiddler. "Here is a cup of ale for thee, and Matty will give you your supper to-night. I have danced too often to thy music to deny thee a comfort;--so, drink as you will! but pray you rest your elbow for a while." "And there is a shilling down on the nail," said Driving Dick, as he and the crowder came together to the bar at the summons of the landlady: "when that is drunk out, dame, give me a space of warning, that I may resolve whether we shall go another shot." "Master Shortgrass told me you had need of me," said Garret Weasel, as he now entered the door;--"what wouldst with me, wife Dorothy?" "Get you gone!" replied the wife--"thou art ever in the way. I warrant your head is always thrust in place when it is not wanted! If you had been at your duty an hour ago, your service might have been useful." "I can but return to the quay," said Garret, at the same time beginning to retrace his steps. "Bide thee!" exclaimed the dame in a shrill voice--"I have occasion for you. Go to the cellar and bring up another stoop of hollands; these salt water fish have no relish for ale--they must deal in the strong:--nothing but hollands or brandy for them." The obedient husband took the key of the cellar and went on the duty assigned him. At this moment a door communicating with an adjoining apartment was thrown ajar and the head of Captain Dauntrees protruded into the tap-room. "Mistress Dorothy," he said--"at your leisure, pray step this way." The dame tarried no longer than was necessary to complete a measure she was filling for a customer, and then went into the room to which she had been summoned. This was a little parlour, where the Captain of musqueteers had been regaling himself for the last hour over a jorum of ale, in solitary rumination. An open window gave to his view the full expanse of the river, now glowing with the rich reflexions of sunset; and a balmy October breeze played through the apartment and refreshed without chilling the frame of the comfortable Captain. He was seated near the window in a large easy chair when the hostess entered.