“With a manageable woman to give her orders—­What’s amiss with ye, Rogers?”

Captain Cai put the question in some alarm, for the heaving of the ship-chandler’s waistcoat and a strangling noise in his throat together suggested a sudden gastric disturbance.

But it appeared they were but symptoms of mirth.  Mr Rogers lifted his practicable hand, and with a red bandanna handkerchief wiped the rheum from his eyes.

“Ho, dear!—­you’ll excuse me, Cap’n; but ‘with a manageable woman,’ you said?  I’d pity her startin’ to manage the like of Fancy Tabb.”

“Why, what’s wrong wi’ the child?”

“Nothin’—­let be I can’t keep a grown woman in the house unless she’s a half-wit.  I have to get ’em from Tregarrick, out o’ the Home for the Feeble-Minded.  But it don’t work so badly.  They’re cheap, you understand; an’ Fancy teaches ’em to cook.  If they don’t show no promise after a fortni’t’s trial, she sends ’em back.  I hope,” added the chandler, perceiving Captain Cai to frown, “you’re not feelin’ no afterthoughts about that leg o’ mutton.  Maybe I ought to have warned ’ee that ’twas cooked by a person of weak intellect.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Captain Cai politely.  “What the eye don’t see the heart don’t grieve, as they say; an’ the jint was boiled to a turn. . . .  I was only wonderin’ how you picked up such a maid!”

The chandler struck again upon the small hand-bell.  “I got her from a bad debt.”

“Seems an odd way—­” began Captain Cai, after pondering for a moment, but broke off, for the hand-maiden stood already on the threshold.

“Fancy Tabb,” commanded the chandler, “step fore, here, into the light.”

The child obeyed.

“You see this gentleman?”

“Yes, master.”  Her eyes, as she turned them upon Captain Cai, were frank enough, or frank as eyes could be that guarded a soul behind glooms of reserve.  They were straight, at any rate, and unflinching, and very serious.

“You know his business?”

“I think so, master. . . .  Has he come to sign the lease?  I’ll fetch it from your desk, if you’ll give me the keys.”

“Bide a bit, missy,” said Captain Cai.  “That’d be buying a pig in a poke, when I ha’n’t even seen the house yet—­not,” he added, with a glance at Mr Rogers, “that I make any doubt of its suiting.  But business is business.”

The child turned to her master, as much as to ask, “What, then, is your need of me?”

“Cap’n Hocken wants a servant,” said Mr Rogers, answering the look.

She appeared to ponder this.  “Before seein’ the house?” she asked, after a moment or two.

“She had us there, Rogers!” chuckled Captain Cai; but the child was perfectly serious.

“You would like me to show you the house?  Master has the key.”

“That’s an idea, now!” He was still amused.

“When?”

“This moment—­that’s to say, if your master’ll spare you?” He glanced at Mr Rogers, who nodded.