"  But  you  are  not  required  to  follow  me,"  replied  this
amiable  eel,  with  hypocritical  benignity :  "  I  am  going  to
my  aunf  s  room  to  do  what  I  told  you.  I  leave  you
in  charge  of  the  quarter-deck."  So  saying,  she  walked
slowly  up  the  steps,  and  left  David  standing  sorrowfully
on  the  gravel.  At  the  top  step,  IVIiss  Lucy  turned  and
inquired  gently  when  he  was  to  saU.  He  told  her  the
ship  was  expected  to  anchor  off  the  fort  to-morrow ;  but
she  would  not  saU  till  she  had  got  aU  her  passengers  on
board.
"  Oh,"  said  Lucy,  with  an  air  of  reflection.  She  then
leaned  in  an  easy  posture  £^ainst  the  wall,  and  whether
it  was  that  she  relented  a  little,  or  that,  having  secured
her  retreat,  she  was  now  indifferent  to  flight,  certain  it
is  that  she  did,  after  her  own  fashion,  what  many  a


346  LOVE  ME  LITTLE,   LOVE  MB  LONG.
daughter  of  Eve  has  done  before  her,  and  many  a
duchess  and  many  a  dairymaid  will  do  after  La  Foun-
tain and  I  are  gone  from  earth.  A  minute  ago  it  had
heen :  —  "  She  must  go  directly ; "  the  more  opposition
to  her  departure,  the  more  inexorable  the  necessity  for
her  going;  opposition  withdrawn,  and  the  door  open,  she
stayed  no  end.
Full  twenty  minutes  did  that  young  lady  stand  there
unsolicited,  and  chat  with  David  Dodd  in  the  kindest,
sweetest,  most  amicable  way  imaginable.
She  little  knew  she  had  an  auditor,  a  female  auditor,
keen  as  a  lynx.
