"I suspect the people in that office were pretty well acquainted with the handsome skipper's 'ways and manners,' and that they understood your case at once."
"I do really believe they did," said Rose; "for they looked at me so strangely, and one man, who seemed to be a porter or a messenger, or something of that sort, said something about a sailor having a wife at every port."
"So after that you came back to New York, and did, at last, what you should have done at first--you wrote to me."
"There was no one on earth to whom, under the peculiar circumstances, I could have written but to you. Oh, Fabian! to whom else could I appeal?"
"And did I not respond promptly to your call?"
"Indeed you did, like a true knight, as you were. And I did not deceive you by any false story, Fabian. I told you all--even thing--how basely I had been deceived--and you soothed and consoled me, and told me that, as I had not sinned intentionally, I had not sinned at all; and you brought me with you to the State capital, and established me comfortably there."
"But you were very ungrateful, my dear. You took everything; gave nothing."
"I would have given you myself in marriage, but you would not have me. You did not think me good enough for you."
"But, bless my wig, child! for your age you had been too much married already--a great deal too much married! You got into the habit of getting married."
"Oh! how merciless you are to me!" Rose said, beginning to weep.
"No; I am not. I have never been unkind to you--as yet. I don't know what I may be! My course toward you will depend very much upon yourself. Have I not always hitherto been your best friend? Ungrateful, unresponsive though you were at that time, did I not procure for you an invitation from my mother to accompany her party on that long, delightful summer trip?"
"I had an impression at the time that I owed the invitation to your father, who suggested to your mother to write and ask me to accompany them."
Mr. Fabian looked surprised, and said--for he never hesitated to tell a fib:
"Oh! that was quite a mistake. It was I myself who suggested the invitation. I thought it would be agreeable to you. Was it not I myself who sent you forward in advance to the Wirt House, Baltimore, there to await the arrival of our party, and join us in our summer travel? And didn't you have a long, delightful tour with us through the most sublime scenery in the most salubrious climates on earth? Didn't you return a perfect Hebe in health and bloom?"