TWO YEARS AGO [Illustration] TWO YEARS AGO BY CHARLES KINGSLEY IN TWO VOLS.--VOL. II 1901 CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAP XV THE CRUISE OF THE WATERWITCH XVI COME AT LAST XVII BAALZEBUB'S BANQUET XVIII THE BLACK HOUND XIX BEDDGELERT XX BOTH SIDES OF THE MOON AT ONCE XXI NATURE'S MELODRAMA XXII FOND, YET NOT FOOLISH XXIII THE BROAD STONE OF HONOUR XXIV THE THIRTIETH OF SEPTEMBER XXV THE BANKER AND HIS DAUGHTER XXVI TOO LATE XXVII A RECENT EXPLOSION IN AN ANCIENT CRATER XXVIII LAST CHRISTMAS EVE TWO YEARS AGO. CHAPTER XV. THE CRUISE OF THE WATERWITCH. The middle of August is come at last; and with it the solemn day on which Frederick Viscount Scoutbush may be expected to revisit the home of his ancestors. Elsley has gradually made up his mind to the inevitable, with a stately sulkiness: and comforts himself, as the time draws near, with the thought that, after all, his brother-in-law is not a very formidable personage. But to the population of Aberalva in general, the coming event is one of awful jubilation. The shipping is all decked with flags; all the Sunday clothes have been looked out, and many a yard of new ribbon and pound of bad powder bought; there have been arrangements for a procession, which could not be got up; for a speech which nobody would undertake to pronounce; and, lastly, for a dinner, about which last there was no hanging back. Yea, also, they have hired from Carcarrow Church-town, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music; for Frank has put down the old choir band at Aberalva,--another of his mistakes,--and there is but one fiddle and a clarionet now left in all the town. So the said town waits all the day on tiptoe, ready to worship, till out of the soft brown haze the stately Waterwitch comes sliding in, like a white ghost, to fold her wings in Aberalva bay.