"And you love every soul--the painted woman in the streets no less
than your own mother?"

Annie nodded again. "I'd nurse 'em both if they were sick," she
said.

"One like the other?"

"And there's nothing shames you?" Here he rose and took her hand.
"You wouldn't blush to kiss me before master here?"

"Why should I?" She gave him a sober kiss, and let her hand rest in
his.

I looked at her. She was just as quiet as in the old days when she
used to lay my table. It was like gazing at a play.

I should be ashamed to repeat the nonsense that Tubal Cain thereupon
began to talk; for it was mere midsummer madness. But I smoked four
pipes contentedly while the sound of his voice continued, and am
convinced that he never performed so well at prayer-meeting. Down at
the town I heard the church-clock striking midnight, and then one
o'clock; and was only aroused when the youth started up and grasped
his fiddle.

"And now, sir, if you would consent to one thing, 'twould make us
very happy. You can't play the violin, worse luck; but you might
take a step or two round the deck with Annie, if I strike up a
waltz-tune for you to move to."