“Where's the others, Captain Jack?” said Mary, whose patience all this time endured a severe trial--“where's the rest?” “_Place pour la potage! Ma Mie!_--soup before a story; you shall hear every thing by and by. Let us have the supper at once.” Lanty chimed in a willing assent to this proposition, and in a few moments the meat smoked upon the table, around which the whole party took their places with evident good-will. “While Mary performed her attentions as hostess, by heaping up each plate, and ever supplying the deficiency caused by the appetite of the guests, the others eat on like hungry men. Captain Jacques alone intermingling with the duties of the table, a stray remark from time to time. “_Ventre bleu!_ how it blows; if it veers more to the southard, there will be a heavy strain on that cable. _Trinquons mon ami, Trinquons toujours; Ma belle Marie_, you eat nothing.” “'Tis unasy I am, Captain Jack, about what's become of the others,” said Mrs. M'Kelly. “Another bumper, _Ma Mie_, and I'm ready for the story--the more as it is a brief one. _Allons donc_--now for it. We left the bay about nine o'clock, or half-past, perhaps, intending to push forward to the glen at once, and weigh with the morning's tide, for it happens that this time our cargo is destined for a small creek, on the north-west coast; our only business here being to land my friend, Harry”--here Talbot bowed and smiled--“and to leave two hogsheads of Bourdeaux, for that very true-hearted, kind, _brave homme_, Hemsworth, at the Lodge there. You remember last winter we entered into a compact with him to stock his cellar, provided no information of our proceedings reached the revenue from any quarter. Well, the wine was safely stored in one of the caves on the coast, and we started with a light conscience; we had neither despatches nor run-brandy to trouble us--nothing to do but eat our supper; saluer madame”--here he turned round, and with an air of mock respect kissed Mary's hand--“and get afloat again. As we came near the 'Lodge,' I determined to make my visit a brief one; and so leaving all my party, Harry included, outside, I approached the house, which, to my surprise, showed lights from nearly every window. This made me cautious, and so I crept stealthily to a low window, across which the curtain was but loosely drawn, and _Mort de ma vie!_ what did I behold, but the prettiest face in Europe. _Une ange de beauté_. She was leaning over a table copying a drawing, or a painting of some sort or other. _Tête bleu!_ here was a surprise. I had never seen her before, although I was with Hemsworth a dozen times.” “Go on--go on,” said Lanty, whose curiosity was extreme to hear what happened next. “_Eh bien_--I tried the sash, but it was fastened. I then went round the house, and examined the other windows, one after the other--all the same. _Que faire!_ I thought of knocking boldly at the back-door, but then I should have no chance of a peep at _la belle_ in that way.”