“Has that man, a bookseller and journalist, missed his vocation?” she said to herself.  “Yet he looks too strong and happy for that.  Has he conquered something, and been the better for it?”

He made so many inquiries about Fergus and his school, that she began to think it must be with a view to his own pretty boy, who came back all sea-water and ecstasy, with a store of limpets, sea-weeds, scales, purses, and cuttle-fish’s backbones for the delectation of his sisters.  Above all, he was eloquent on the shell of a lacemaker crab, all over prickles, which he had seen hanging in the window of a little tobacconist.  He had been so much fascinated by it that General Mohun regretted not having taken him to buy it, though it appeared to be displayed more for ornament than for sale.

“It is a disgusting den,” added the General, “with ’Ici on parle Francais’ in the window, and people hanging about among whom I did not fancy taking the boy.”

“I know the place,” said Miss Mohun.  “Strange to say, it produces rather a nice girl, under the compulsion of the school officer.  She is plainly half a foreigner, and when Mr. Flight got up those theatricals last winter she sung most sweetly, and showed such talent that I thought it quite dangerous.”

“I remember,” said her brother.  “She was a fairy among the clods.”

The next morning, to the amazement of Miss Mohun, who thought herself one of the earliest of risers, she not only met the father and son at early matins, but found that they had been out for two hours enjoying sea-side felicity, watching the boats come in, and delighting in the beauty of the fresh mackerel.

“If they had not all been dead!” sighed the tender-hearted little fellow.  “But I’ve got my lacemaker for Audrey.”

“‘The carapace of a pagurus,’ as Fergus translated it.”  Adding, “I don’t know the species.”

“I can find out when father has time to let us look at the big natural history book in the shop,” said Felix.  “We must not look at it unless he turns it over, so Pearl and I are saving up to buy it.”

“For instance!” said his father, laughing.

“Oh, I could not help getting something for them all,” pleaded the boy, “and pagurus was not dear.  At least he is, in the other way.”

“Take care, Fely-—he won’t stand caresses.  I should think he was the first crab ever so embraced.”

“I wonder you got entrance so early in the day,” said Miss Mohun.

“The girl was sweeping out the shop, and singing the morning hymn, so sweetly and truly, that it would have attracted me anyway,” said Lancelot.  “No doubt the seafaring men want ’baccy at all hours.  She was much amazed at our request, and called her mother, who came out in remarkable dishabille, and is plainly foreign.  I can’t think where I have seen such a pair of eyes-—most likely in the head of some chorus-singer, indeed the voice had something of the quality.  Anyway, she stared at me to the full extent of them.”