were both the children of first cousins. No wonder the boy's a natural. Did ye see him, also?"
Owen meditated; then, referring to the grandmother, asked what she was worth. Carrel thought she would cut up for ten thousand pounds.
"Which, laid out in good sound rentes, would bring in £500 a year, and you would have the house, and a nice little wife into the bargain. And a family doctor is bound to marry, my boy, hey? Which reminds me to tell you," concluded Carrel, with a spirituous laugh, "that your scarlet devil of a Margot was here while you were out, inquiring after you. I wonder what she'll do when she hears you are making eyes at the little Allez girl, hey?"
"She may do as she damn pleases," said Owen, equably; "do you imagine I'm in any way bound to a trull like that?"
But all the same he was sorry to hear that the red-haired witch had been round and he had missed her. He had not seen her now for over a week.
An Island tea is a square, sit-down meal eaten in the living-room with much solemnity. It is taken at half-past five, and is the last meal of the day; you are offered nothing after it but a glass of home-made wine and a biscuit. It consists entirely of sweets; jams, cakes, and various gôches—gôches à pommes, gôches à groseilles, gôches à beurre. Sugar and milk are put liberally into every cup; and such hyper-inquisitiveness as a desire to know whether you take one or neither never occurs to the well-regulated Island mind. When you have eaten all you are able, you are urgently pressed to take a little more. It is considered good manners to do so.
When
