Oh yes! they do, and there's a skipper and two mates,
and a clerk, and a well-to-do locksmith, besides gentlemen's valets
and others, I don't account of, who would all cut off their little
fingers if I'd only once look at them as I am doing at you, you old
block, who don't heed it, and I don't know that I can hold out
against them all," she added, looking down with a sudden shyness;
"specially the mates. There's Jonah Richards, who has a ship
building that he is to have of his own, and he wants to call it the
'Sprightly Emlyn,' and the other sailed with Prince Rupert, and made
ever so many prizes, and how am I to stand out when you don't value
me the worth of an old silver cup?"
"Come, come, Em, that's only to frighten a man." But she knew in his
tone that he was frightened.
"Not a bit! I should be ever so much better off in a tidy little
house where I could see all that came and went than up in your lane
with nought to go by but the market folk. 'Tis not everyone that
would have kept true to a big country lout like you, like that lady
among the salvage men that the King spoke of; and I get nothing by it
but wait, wait, wait, when there's stores of silver ready to your
hand.
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