candles, too. This is noble!"

"How hungry you must be! How long is it since you have eaten?"

"Grey sent his servant into a village to buy some bread and cheese;
we divided it when we parted, and it lasted me until this morning.
Since then I have fasted."

"Dear brother, I wish I could do more for you; but till Mr. Enderby
goes, I cannot, for the soldiers are about the kitchen, and our maid,
Deborah, talks too much to be trustworthy, though she is thoroughly
faithful."

"This is excellent fare," said Edmund, eating with great relish.
"And now tell me of yourselves. My mother is feeble and unwell, you
say?"

"Never strong, but tolerably well at present."

"So Walter said. By the way, Walter is a fine spirited fellow. I
should like to have him with me if we take another African voyage."

"He would like nothing better, poor fellow. But what strange things
you have seen and done since we met! How little we thought that
morning that it would be six years before we should sit side by side
again! And Prince Rupert is kind to you?"

"He treats me like a son or brother: never was man kinder," said
Edmund, warmly. "But the children? I must see them before I depart.
Little Lucy, is she as bold and pert as she was as a young child?"