NE WFO UNDLAND. 63 



and said, " You shan't be called Mr. Gosse any more ; you 

 shall be called plain Philip." The lad was very timid ; 

 but on this occasion he thought he saw his advantage in 

 the manager's own overweening sense of dignity, and he 

 pertly replied, " Very well ; and I'll call you plain John," 

 which shut his mouth and stopped that move, while the 

 labourers grinned approval. 



On Sundays only Philip Gosse was his own master at 

 St. Mary's. Sometimes, while the summer lasted, he took 

 an exploring walk on this day. But though the scenery 

 seaward was grand, it was not attractive ; the land was a 

 treeless waste, and the young man had no companion to 

 interchange a word with. He therefore soon took to the 

 habit of going round the beach to Phippard's immediately 

 after breakfast, spending the whole day there, and return- 

 ing to his solitary bedroom at night. Phippard had two 

 daughters — one married to an Englishman named Coles, 

 who commanded a little coasting craft, and who lived in 

 the house ; the other a pretty girl, named Emma, who 

 insensibly became the young clerk's closest friend and 

 principal companion. The Elson stores and wharf had the 

 reputation of being haunted. The Irish servants told of 

 strange lights seen and unaccountable noises heard there 

 at night, although there was insinuated, on sunshiny 

 mornings, a sly suspicion that the demon was one Ned 

 Toole, a faithful servitor and confidential factotum of 

 Martin's. It was quite salutary that such a superstition 

 should prevail ; a ghost is an excellent watch-dog. Martin 

 affected to despise the belief, but secretly nourished it 

 notwithstanding. Gosse's bedroom was over the office, 

 and between it and the other inhabited rooms there was 

 a large unoccupied chamber called the fur-room. The 

 house did a good deal of business in valuable furs — 

 beaver, otter, fox, and musquash — and the whole room 



