of Plymouth; and as Miss Walsingham was walking on the beach, she saw an
old fisherman mooring his boat to the projecting stump of a tree. His
figure was so picturesque, that she stopped to sketch it; and as she was
drawing, a woman came from the cottage near the shore to ask the
fisherman what luck he had had. "A fine turbot," says he, "and a
john-doree."

"Then away with them this minute to Beaumont Park," said the woman; "for
here's Madam Beaumont's man, Martin, called _in a flustrum_ while you
was away, to say madam must have the nicest of our fish, whatsomever it
might be, and a john-doree, if it could be had for love or money, for
Tuesday."--Here the woman, perceiving Miss Walsingham, dropped a curtsy.
"Your humble servant, Miss Walsingham," said the woman.

"On Tuesday?" said Miss Walsingham: "are you sure that Mrs. Beaumont
bespoke the fish for Tuesday?"

"Oh, _sartin_ sure, miss; for Martin mentioned, moreover, what he had
heard talk in the servants' hall, that there is to be a very _pettiklar_
old gentleman, as rich! as rich! as rich can be! from foreign parts, and
a great friend of the colonel that's dead; and he--that is, the old
_pettiklar_ gentleman--is to be down all the way from Lon'on to dine at
the park on Tuesday for _sartin_: so, husband, away with the john-doree
and the turbot, while they be fresh."

"But why," thought Miss Walsingham, "did not Mrs. Beaumont tell us the
plain truth, if this is the truth?"