Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 1).pdf/55

 he. "Why, Mistress, have you been trying your skill at fisty cuffs for the good of your nation? or only playing with kittens for your private diversion?"

"Now, then, Harleigh," said Elinor, "what says your quixotism now? Are you to become enamoured with those plaisters and patches, too?"

"Why she seems a little mangled, I confess; but it may be only by scrambling from some prison."

"Really, Mr. Harleigh," said Mrs. Maple, scarcely troubling herself to lower her voice as, incessantly, she continued surveying the stranger, "I don't think that we are much indebted to you for bringing us such company as this into our boat! We did not pay such a price to have it made a mere common hoy. And without the least enquiry into her character, too! without considering what one must think of a person who could look out for a place, in a chance vessel, at midnight!"

"Let us hope," said Harleigh, per-