“We have plenty of time to talk that over, father.  I love the cottage for many reasons; although, as you say, it is not large enough now for our means or future way of living.”

“And I love it too, boy; I love to look out of the door and see the spot where my Bessy rescued me from death.  God bless her! she is a noble girl, Tom, though I say it who—­but I’m not her father, after all, and if I were, I would still say it.”

“It is evident, by her letter to you, that she has been most anxious about us.  What will she say when she hears we have both been wounded?”

“Ay! it wouldn’t have done to have told her that, or she would have set off for Chatham, as sure as we are sitting here.”

Here a pause ensued for some time, and we were busied with our own thoughts.  The silence was at last broken by me.

“Father,” said I, “I should like to ask my father and Peter Anderson to come down to us; they can easily get leave.”

“Is it to be present at your wedding, Tom?”

“Exactly—­if Bessy will consent.”

“Well, I have no doubt of that, Tom; but she will now require a little courting, you know why.”

“Why, because all women like it, I suppose.”

“No, Tom; it is because she was in love before you were, d’ye understand?—­and now that things are all smooth, and you follow her, why, it’s natural, I suppose, that she should shy off a little in her turn.  You mustn’t mind that, Tom; it’s a sort of soothing to the mortification of having at one time found herself, as it were, rejected.”

“Well, I shan’t mind that; it will only serve me right for being such a fool as not to have perceived her value before.  But how do you understand women so well, father?”

“Because, Tom, I’ve been looking on and not performing all my life:  except in one instance in a long life, I’ve only been a bystander in the way of courtship and matrimony.  Here we are at last, and now for a chaise to Deal.  Thank God, we can afford to shorten the time, for Bessy’s sake, poor thing!”

We arrived at the cottage.  The sound of the wheels had called out not only Bessy and Mrs. Maddox, but all the neighbors; for they had heard of our good fortune.  Bessy, as soon as she had satisfied herself that it was Bramble and me, went into the cottage again.  Once more we entered the humble roof.  Bessy flew into her father’s arms, and hung weeping on his shoulder.

“Haven’t you a kind word to say for Tom?” said Bramble kissing her as he released himself.

“Does he deserve it, to leave me as he did, laughing at my distress? He had no right to treat me so.”

“Indeed, Bessy, you do me injustice.  I said at the time that I thought there was no risk, and I certainly did think there was none.  Who would have expected a privateer half-way up the Thames, any more than a vessel with twenty men on board could be re-captured by two men?”