"That may do for him," muttered David, "but it won't do for me. He can talk with her and I can't; so if he won't teach her English I will. Devil take me if she isn't a sweet little fairy; and she's quite enchanted the Scholar already. He's a changed man since yesterday. But he shan't have all the fun to himself." "She looks thirteen, don't you think?" said Jael. "She won't be a child much longer, David. Why, come three years or so, she'll be old enough to be married." "Ay, old woman; but I shall be too old to marry her," he answered, with a keen look and a laugh. "I tell you, son, she's a lady, and good enough to mate with any man." "That's your notion, and likely enough it's true. But good blood isn't all I want--I've got that already, thanks to your good looks; what I want and haven't got is money. And Miss Swanhilda, pretty as she is, has less money even than I." "But she has relations--rich relations; her own father and mother may be alive for all we know. If she was saved off a ship where all the rest were lost, of course there'll be no telling for some time to come. But it's worth waiting for." "Did no papers come ashore--nothing to help identify her?" "I asked Poyntz that," said Jael, "and so far as I can make out, I think there hasn't been anything." "Well, I'll make sure of that next time I go over. We might advertise in the foreign papers after awhile. A right pretty little thing she is, and no mistake. But I'm not a-going to run any risks, old woman. Supposing I was to get tied down to her for life, and then find out that she'd got nothing, what would I do then?" "There's no need of supposing any such thing, David. As if you couldn't make the girl fond of you so as she wouldn't marry any but you; then you'd have her safe, and if all turned out well, 'twould be time enough to put the ring on her finger." "Ay, that's about the idea, I suppose. Well, the Scholar's got the start of us now; and 'twon't do to let him see what we're up to; luckily he never did see what's going on under his nose. By-the-way, that's a quaint bit of a necklace the child wears; mayhaps that'll help us to find out something----" He broke off suddenly, with an oath, and he and his mother stood listening, pale-faced. His eyes were angry, but terror lurked in those of the woman. A strange jarring sound filled the air; it seemed to come from every side, and screamed harshly into the listeners' ears. If a fiend had burst into a long fit of malignant laughter close at hand the effect could not have been more hateful and discordant. "The laugh again!" David muttered between his teeth. "It would be just our luck if it scared our best customer away. Devil take me if I don't begin to believe it is the soul of that cursed husband of yours, that you treated so affectionately. I'll swear there's not a spot of rust on the machinery as big as a pin's head."