the broad quay, and gave myself up to reflections
of a character rather bitter than sweet.
Three years spent in Russia, and nothing to
show for them. Three years of change and
toil, of waiting and enforced inaction, of
hardships and hard work, but where was the fruit of
so much thought and labour. There was none;
I was leaving the czar's dominions a still poorer
man than I had entered them, and this not
from any improvidence or indolence on my own
part, but in consequence of a series of petty
misfortunes. It was not that I had not occasionally
had well-paid employment in my own
line as an analytical chemist; but .that I had
vainly tried to save —  the great expense of living
and travelling in Russia keeping my purse
lean in spite of myself. Lately I had been
retained for several months, at a liberal salary,
to assay the ores and other products of Prince
Vassilikoff's mines in the Ural chain, and my
thoughts and fingers had been ceaselessly busy
with malachite and platinum, gold grains and
native copper. But soon after my engagement
came to an end, the breaking of a bank had
muleted one-half of my little savings, and the
expenses of a tedious country fever, of which I
sickened at Taganrog, had reduced my funds to
a very low ebb indeed.

So there I was, on the quay of Odessa, wistfully
computing the amount of a few dollars
and roubles that remained, and pondering on the
best means of getting home to England, where
I had hopes of promptly obtaining employment.
My anxiety was not entirely selfish. I had a
mother and sisters at home, not, indeed,
dependent upon me for support, but in narrow
circumstances, and I had often promised myself
the pleasure of giving them many comforts
which had been theirs in earlier days, and
before my father's misfortunes and death. This
now could not be. My slender means required
to be most carefully husbanded, were I
to get home at all. And I was still weak and
emaciated after the fever, and unfit to bear much
privation, or I might have found an economical
passage on board one of those unclean foreign
vessels, whose slovenly decks and untidy
rigging contrasted so strongly with the trimness
of the James Watt, at anchor beyond.

There was a Spanish schooner, deep laden,
that was moored close to the quay. Her decks
were encumbered and foul, her cabins, as I
guessed, mere flea-haunted dens, and the shaggy
olive skinned crew, in their red sashes and red
Catalan caps, were quarrelling over their greasy
cards or eating with wooden spoons some dark
mess of semi-liquid food, the garlic and oil of
which I could smell from where I sat. No
doubt the Spaniard would take me as a passenger
at a low rate, but I was ill and weak yet, and
could not bring myself to face a month in such
companionship.

There were plenty of vessels, lofty-masted
American clippers, huge-hulled barques from
Bremen or Hamburg, Dutch, Turkish, and
Maltese craft, but only a per-centage bound for
England, and none so attractive as the James
Watt. I sighed as I glanced at her red chimneys,
clean decks, shining cabin windows, the awning
over her poop, and the spruce figure-head as gay as
paint and Dutch metal could make it, and thought
how pleasant would have been the run home
in her, over the summer sea. There is a longing
for home that seizes on a lonely Englishman,
and especially a sick Englishman, in a far distant
country, to which words cannot do justice. It
must be felt.

"Pardon me, sir, if I intrude! You seek a
passage to Liverpool? do you not?" said a soft
musical voice at my elbow, a voice soft enough
and musical enough to have belonged to a young
girl. I turned my head, and saw that the person
who had accosted me was a well dressed,
slightly built young man, with a smooth dark
face and brilliant restless eyes. Very handsome,
and very elegant, as he stood beside me,
gracefully bowing, with uplifted hat and winning
smile, but the first impression on my mind was
one of distrust. I felt ashamed of the impression.

"You seek a passage? Indeed I know that you
do. I was in the office, yonder, when you called
just now."

And he pointed with his supple forefinger,
clothed in spotless yellow kid, towards the
imposing edifice I had so lately left. He had been
there, then, I thought, probably concealed from
me by that group of newspaper-reading loungers
of which I have spoken, and I was silly enough to
feel a twinge of pain at the reflection that he
had heard my questions and the clerk's replies,
and knew how poor I was. The young man
possibly guessed what was passing through my
mind, for his flexible voice assumed a tone of
grave courtesy as he resumed:

"Forgive my intrusion. I am not prompted
by idle curiosity, I do assure you. It is a
matter of mutual convenience that I wish to
speak about. You are going to England, and I
am in a position to offer you the chance of
making the trip as comfortable as if you
embarked in the James Watt, and as economical as
if you put up with the miseries of one of those
exceedingly dirty but picturesque craft before us."

The distrustful impression was waxing very
faint by this time, but I still felt some doubts
as to the exact social status of my new
acquaintance. He was not a sailor, that was plain, and
while his look and tone were those of an
educated man, he was too young for a merchant.

"Then you have —  you are —   " I began, in
some perplexity.

"Not a tout —  not that, I assure you, since I
see that you are too polite to finish the sentence,"
said my companion, with a ringing laugh
that spoke of exuberant spirits and a genial
nature; " I am merely the supercargo of the
Seven Angels there, about to sail for Liverpool,
and I should gladly take you with us on the
voyage —  that is all, my dear sir."

The impression was quite gone now, and as I
looked at the noble ship, a stately three-master,
anchored some cables' length from the quay, I
felt a thrill of pleasure, slightly alloyed by doubts