Perhaps it was my bein' a long-tailed parson. Was it, now?"
"Not in the least," said Susan stoutly, "it was because you were you."
"But now I ain't what I was, and you must find it very embarrassing, ma'am."
"What I find embarrassing is your calling me 'ma'am,'" said Susan, with a snap that made Ruddle see that the skipper was right in other ways than his judgment of the lady's beauty.
"Very well," said Tom Ruddle in a great hurry, "I'll call you Susan if you like."
"Of course I like," said Susan; "and if you like you can call me Dilly Duck too."
But though Ruddle was much encouraged, he could not go so far as that all at once.
"If you won't, you might at anyrate sit down near me," said the fair Circe with the golden hair. And Tom sat down gingerly.
"I don't know what is to be done," said he in a melancholy way. "I suppose you agree with me, ma'am,—Susan, I mean,—that it is very awkward and most unusual? Looking it fair and square, I don't see a way out, unless"
