the steam she’d like to—not in front of ’im.”

“I shall be flustered if I like!” insisted Mrs. Gooster. “Don’t you start ordering me about! If I ain’t allowed to be flustered on my wedding-day, I should like to know when I am allowed to be.”

Captain Gooster, after a glance of dawning uneasiness at his bride, led the way through the shop. The new Mrs. Gooster’s mother was unsuspectingly laying the table for tea, and Mr. Dobb, to the captain’s relief, was seated in the arm-chair.

“We’ve done it!” announced Captain Gooster.

“I’m Mrs. Gooster now,” said the younger lady.

“Lor’!” exclaimed Mrs. Goffley. She turned to Horace and giggled coyly. “Shall we tell ’em?” she asked.

“Not much to tell,” returned Mr. Dobb, airily. p. 23“Only that you and me was married, too, this morning, by special licence!”

p. 23

“Lor’!” cried the skipper’s wife, in her turn.

“Quite private,” explained Horace, briefly. “She even paid for the licence, so as to get it over quick. I fancy she must ’ave guessed what you and—and Ann was up to.”

“Oh, well, there’s no accounting for tastes!” said the skipper of the “Alert.” “Anyway, there can’t be any cause for ill-feeling between any of us now, can there? But, really, I don’t quite see, ’Orace, ’ow you come to—”

“So you two got married on the quiet, too, did you?” interrupted Mrs. Dobb, with a curious glint in her eyes. “Well, p’r’aps you was wise. Because, of course, you must ’ave known that I’d never ’ave given my consent, after the way you treated me, Cap’n Gooster?”

“Yes, I knew that well enough,” agreed the skipper.

“You married Ann for her money, of course,” stated the elder lady, dogmatically.

“Nothing of the sort!” stoutly maintained Captain Gooster. “Love—nothing but love! It was because I’d found out that it was ’er I really loved all the time that I broke it off with you. If Ann ’adn’t got a single penny coming to ’er—”

“And she ’asn’t!” said Mrs. Dobb, with emphasis.

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