Several ladies' work-tables, with the work lying on them, tumbled as it were in haste, and chairs disarranged, showed that our approach had not been observed until we were close aboard, and that the fair members of the family had that moment fled, in order to make themselves presentable; indeed this was vouched for by the laughing, and _fistling_, and _keckling_ we heard in a room, whose window opened into the piazza. Presently a tidily-dressed brown waiting-maiden, with flowers on her gown the size of the crown of my hat, and of the gaudiest colours, popped her head in at the door, and after showing her white teeth, disappeared. She had very evidently been sent to reconnoitre, and I could not avoid overhearing her say in the inner room aforesaid, close to the open window of which our party were clustered, "Oh, nyung missis--dere are old massa Frenche--one tall town-looking buccra, wid big hook nose like one parrot bill--one leetler fat one, hab red face, and one fonny coat, all tick over wid small silk barrel, and broider wid black silk lace--And--oh, I forgot--one small slip of a boy, dat roll side to side so"--here she seemed to be suiting the action to the word--"like de sailor negro." Now this was _me_, your honour. At this moment we heard a noise, as if some one had been scraping the mud off his shoes at the back part of the house, and giving various orders at the same time in a loud voice to the servants; then a heavy step through the lofty hall, and enter a tall, sallow, yellow-snake of a man, in wide white jane trowsers and waistcoat,--the perspiration streaming down his face, and dripping from the point of his sun-peeled nose, while the collar of his shirt and his neckcloth were also very sudorous. He wore a threadbare blue coat, the buttons all covered with verdigris, and a hat--which he kept on, by the way--worn white at the edges, with the pasteboard frame of it visible where the silk nap had been rubbed. "Ah, Frenche," quoth mine host, for it was no other, "how are you, my dear fellow? Paul, call your missis--and, Mr Twig, I am so glad to see you. Boys, get second breakfast--we have kept it back on purpose." "Twang," thought I. "Frenche, my lad, introduce me--your nephew, I presume?" I bowed, and was shaken furiously by the hand. "I should have known him, I declare; so like you, my old cock." "Gammon again," thought I. "And, Twig, I say, you must introduce me to"--Here he indicated Don Felix, and prepared to "pull his foot," as the negroes say, in that direction also--in other words, to make his bow to Monsieur Flamingo, who was accordingly made known to him in due form, and had his fingers nearly wrung off, as mine had been. Don Felix, so soon as he was released, took an opportunity of catching my eye, shaking them aside, and blowing the tips as if they had been burned.