Salthaven | Page 4

for some time sat
gazing round the somewhat severely furnished office, wondering with
some uneasiness what effect such surroundings might have on a noble
but impressionable temperament. He brought round a few sketches the
next day to brighten the walls, and replated the gum-bottle and other
useful ornaments by some German beer-mugs.
Even with these aids to industry he found the confinement of office
somewhat irksome, and, taking a broad view of his duties, gradually
relieved Bassett of his errands to the docks. It was necessary, he told
himself, to get a thorough grasp of the whole business of ship-owning.
In the stokeholds of Vyner and Son's' steamships he talked learnedly on
coal with the firemen, and, quite unaided, hit on several schemes for the
saving of coal--all admirable except for the fact: that several knots per
hour would be lost.
"The thing is to take an all-round view," he said to Captain. Trimblett,
of the SS. Indian Chief, as he strolled back with that elderly mariner
from the ship to the office one day.
"That's it, sir," said the captain.
"Don't waste, and, at the same time, don't pinch," continued Mr. Robert,
oracularly.
"That's business in a nutshell," commented the captain. "Don't spoil the
ship for a ha'porth of tar, and, on the other hand, don't get leaving the
tar about for other people to sit on."

"But you got it off," said Robert, flushing. "You told me you had."
"As far as tar ever can be got off," asserted the captain, gloomily. "Yes.
Why I put my best trousers on this morning," he continued, in a tone of
vague wonder, "I'm sure I don't know. It was meant to be, I suppose;
it's all for some wise purpose: that we don't know of."
"Wise fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Robert, shortly--"Your particular brand
of fatalism is the most extraordinary nonsense I ever heard of. What it
means: is that thousands of years ago, or millions, perhaps, was decided
that I should be born on purpose to tar your blessed trousers."
"That and other things," said the immovable captain. "It's all laid down
for us, everything we do, and we can't help doing it. When I put on
those trousers this morning--"
"Oh, hang your trousers," said Robert. "You said it didn't matter, and
you've been talking about nothing else ever since."
"I won't say another word about it," said the captain. "I remember the
last pair I had done; a pair o' white ducks. My steward it was; one o'
those silly, fat-headed, staring-eyed, garping--"
"Go on," said the other, grimly.
"Nice, bright young fellows," concluded the captain, hastily; "he got on
very well, I believe."
"After he left you, I suppose?" said Mr. Vyner, smoothly.
"Yes," said the innocent captain. He caught a glance of the other's face
and ruminated. "After I had broken him of his silly habits," he added.
He walked along smiling, and, raising his cap with a flourish, beamed
in a fatherly manner on a girl who was just passing. Robert replaced his
hat and glanced over his left shoulder.
"Who is that?" he inquired. "I saw her the other day; her face seems
familiar to me."

"Joan Hartley," replied the captain. "Nathaniel Hartley's daughter. To
my mind, the best and prettiest girl in Salthaven."
[Illustration: Best and prettiest girl in Salthaven 024]
"Eh?" said the other, staring. "Hartley's daughter? Why, I should have
thought--"
The best and prettiest girl in Salthaven
"Yes, sir?" said Captain Trimblett, after a pause.
"Nothing," concluded Robert, lamely. "She doesn't look like it; that's
all."
"She's got his nose," maintained the captain, with the obstinate air of a
man prepared to go to the stake for his opinions. "Like as two peas their
noses are; you'd know them for father and daughter anywhere by that
alone."
Mr. Vyner assented absently. He was wondering where the daughter of
the chief clerk got her high looks from.
"Very clever girl," continued the captain. "She got a scholarship and
went to college, and then, when her poor mother died, Hartley was so
lonely that she gave it all up and came home to keep house for him."
"Quite a blue-stocking," suggested Robert.
"There's nothing of the blue-stocking about her," said the captain,
warmly. "In fact, I shouldn't be surprised if she became engaged soon."
Mr. Vyner became interested. "Oh!" he said, with an instinctive glance
over his left shoulder.
Captain Trimblett nodded sagely. "Young fellow of the name of
Saunders," he said slowly.
"Oh!" said the other again.

"You might have seen him at Wilson's, the ship-broker's," pursued the
captain. "Bert Saunders his name is. Rather a dressy youngster, perhaps.
Generally wears a pink shirt and a very high stand-up collar--one o'
those collars that you have to get used to."
Mr. Vyner nodded.
"He's not