“Calm yourself, my good woman, calm yourself,” said the senior partner.  He perceived that the evil prophesied by his son had come upon him, and he made a mental note of this fresh instance of Ezra’s powers of foresight.

“It was hard, so it was,” said Mrs. Hudson, drying her eyes, but still giving vent to an occasional tempestuous sob.  “I heard as the Black Eagle was comin’ up the river, so I spent all I had in my pocket in makin’ Jim a nice little supper—­ham an’ eggs, which was always his favourite, an’ a pint o’ bitter, an’ a quartern o’ whiskey that he could take hot after, bein’ naturally o’ a cold turn, and him comin’ from a warm country, too.  Then out I goes, and down the river, until I sees the Black Eagle a-comin’ up wi’ a tug in front of her.  Well I knowed the two streaks o’ white paint, let alone the screechin’ o’ the parrots which I could hear from the bank.  I could see the heads o’ some of the men peepin’ over the side, so I waves my handkercher, and one o’ them he waves back.  ‘Trust Jim for knowin’ his little wife,’ says I, proud like to myself, and I runs round to where I knew as they’d dock her.  What with me being that excited that I couldn’t rightly see where I was going, and what with the crowd, for the men was comin’ from work, I didn’t get there till the ship was alongside.  Then I jumps aboard, and the first man I seed was Sandy McPherson, who I knowed when we lived in Binnacle Lane.  ‘Where’s Jim?’ I cried, running forward, eager like, to the forecastle, but he caught me by the arm as I passed him.  ‘Steady, lass, steady!’ Then I looked up at him, and his face was very grave, and my knees got kind o’ weak.  ‘Where’s Jim?’ says I.  ‘Don’t ask,’ says he.  ‘Where is he, Sandy?’ I screeches; and then, ‘Don’t say the word, Sandy, don’t you say it.’  But, Lor’ bless ye, sir, it didn’t much matter what he said nor what he didn’t, for I knowed all, an’ down I flops on the deck in a dead faint.  The mate, he took me home in a cab, and when I come to there was the supper lying, sir, and the beer, and the things a-shinin’, and all so cosy, an’ the child askin’ where her father was, for I told her he’d bring her some things from Africa.  Then, to think of him a-lyin’ dead in Bonny river, why, sir, it nigh broke my heart.”

“A sore affliction,” the merchant said, shaking his grizzled head.  “A sad visitation.  But these things are sent to try us, Mrs. Hudson.  They are warnings to us not to fix our thoughts too much upon the dross of this world, but to have higher aims and more durable aspirations.  We are poor short-sighted creatures, the best of us, and often mistake evil for good.  What seems so sad to-day may, if taken in a proper spirit, be looked back upon as a starting-point from which all the good of your life has come.”

“Bless you, sir!” said the widow, still furtively rubbing her eyes with the corner of her little shawl.  “You’re a real kind gentleman.  It does me good to hear you talk.”