Agnes could have had her choice not of one, but of _ten husbands_, had she wished to do as her sister had done and taken the first eligible man who offered. But the idea of marrying for an establishment never entered her unsophisticated brain, and, as she had not yet met her _beau ideal_ of a husband, she waited patiently, bearing the scoffs and jeers of her unsympathetic aunt without a murmur, and giving in return for her daily bread labor that in any other establishment would have yielded her no small remuneration, had any time in the past two years paid attention to Agnes Malcolm, was a young man named George Fairfield, second mate of the ship “Glenalpine,” a good looking young fellow about twenty-three years old, who was the son of respectable English parents residing at Liverpool. Agnes, though rather partial to the young man, had paid a deaf ear to his addresses, not caring to marry a man unless she could give him her whole heart, but after her sister had gone, and she was left in utter loneliness, the rude but honest sympathy and love of the handsome sailor went to her heart, and she consented to marry him on his return from his next trip. George Fairfield went off as happy as if he had been suddenly appointed Port Admiral. He felt not the ground he walked on, so light was his heart and also his tread as he stepped home with his eyes fixed on the stars, but his mind picturing that happy scene which had been all too short. He whistled a bar or two of “Love’s Young Dream” as he stepped gaily along, hoping to receive orders to sail on the morrow; not, as he tried to explain to his lady-love, that he was anxious to get away from her, but because he wished to be soon back again, when, receiving a berth as first mate, he would be in a position to claim her as his bride. The ship did not sail for a week, and when it did George would have pleaded for one day more in spite of his previous hurry to be off, however, there was no help for it, “For men must work and women must weep, though storms be sudden and waters deep,” and so Mr. George took his position at the taffrail, and contented himself with flying a blue handkerchief over the stern of the vessel till the forms on shore were no longer visible. Agnes returned to her every day occupation as household drudge, sad at losing her lover, yet not so sad as she would have been had she really given, him her whole heart unconstrainedly; she shed a few tears as the vessel left the quay, then turning homewards she mentally counted the weeks which were to elapse ere she should again see the tapering masts of the “Glenalpine.” She made her preparations for her wedding methodically and without excitement, and, following her suitor’s instructions, bought furniture according to her taste for the little cottage he had rented in anticipation of his exalted rank as first officer of a clipper.