"I beg your pardon, captain," she interrupted, sharply, "you haven't lived in it. I say that it's a devilish bad inn. There, there, forgive my short temper. I shall be very glad to get back to London again, where I know every turn and corner of the house I live in, and can't run against things unexpectedly. Will you oblige me, captain, by informing me if it's after seven o'clock?" The captain consulted his old-fashioned watch. "By the clock of the parish church, madam, it is some three minutes past the hour," he said. She rapped impatiently on the floor with her stick. "Comethup, ring the bell; ring it hard. I'll let these people know that when I say seven I mean seven." The entrance of dinner as Comethup's hand was on the bell saved a further explosion, and they sat down. The captain could not but admire, as Comethup had done before, the ease and dexterity with which Miss Carlaw found everything she wanted, seeming to know by the slightest movement of her quick hands exactly where everything about her was. She kept up a running fire of comment on herself and her mode of life, and on all she had already planned to do for her nephew. "I suppose, like the rest of them, captain, you think I'm a helpless old woman, and bemoan my fate to be shut up in darkness, eh?" She went on rapidly, without giving him time for a reply: "Indeed, you're quite mistaken. I've got such a blessed lot to be thankful for that I haven't time to think about any little trifle that might otherwise worry me. Look at me, sound and strong and hearty, with everything I want in this world, and the other one too far off to be thought of yet a bit. Oh, and I can assure you I'm not a lonely old woman by any means. I love company; I love to hear voices and laughter and music all about me; there's nothing like it to keep the heart young. I can tell you there's generally a house full where Charlotte Carlaw is--and merry times the rogues have, men and women alike." She paused, and her face grew grave and thoughtful for a moment. "Only sometimes, when they're all gone, and the music has ceased and the house is quiet, I've felt--I'm an old fool, I know--but I've felt it would be good to have some one, pure and sweet of heart--some one who didn't love me for my money, or because I said smart things, or sharp things, or because I was eccentric; some one who'd gone deeper into the heart of the old woman than that, and understood her a little. D'you know what I mean?" "Yes, I think so," said the captain.