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Mrs. Todd assented with an air of triumph, and untied her hat-strings and threw them back over her shoulders with a gallant air.

“And I married a man by the name of Albert, just the same as she did, and all by chance, for I did n’t get the news that she had an Albert too till a fortnight afterward; news was slower coming then than it is now. My first baby was a girl, and I called her Victoria after my mate; but the next one was a boy, and my husband wanted the right to name him, and took his own name and his brother Edward’s, and pretty soon I saw in the paper that the little Prince o’ Wales had been christened just the same. After that I made excuse to wait till I knew what she ‘d named her children. I did n’t want to break the chain, so I had an Alfred, and my darling Alice that I lost long before she lost hers, and there I stopped. If I ‘d only had a dear daughter to stay at home with me, same’s her youngest one, I should have been so thankful! But if only one of us could have a little Beatrice, I ‘m glad ‘t was the Queen; we ‘ve both seen trouble, but she ‘s had the most care.”

I asked Mrs. Martin if she lived alone all the year, and was told that she did except for a visit now and then from one of her grandchildren, “the only one that really likes to come an’ stay quiet ‘long o’ grandma. She always says quick as she’s through her schoolin’ she’s goin’ to live with me all the time, but she ‘s very pretty an’ has taking ways,” said Mrs. Martin, looking both proud and wistful, “so I can tell nothing at all about it! Yes, I ‘ve been alone most o’ the time since my Albert was taken away, and that’s a great many years; he had a long time o’ failing and sickness first.” (Mrs. Todd’s foot gave an impatient scuff on the floor.) “An’ I ‘ve always lived right here. I ain’t like the Queen’s Majesty, for this is the only palace I ‘ve got,” said the dear old thing, smiling again. “I ‘m glad of it too, I don’t like changing about, an’ our stations in life are set very different. I don’t require what the Queen does, but sometimes I ‘ve thought ‘t was left to me to do the plain things she don’t have time for. I expect she’s a beautiful housekeeper, nobody could n’t have done better in her high place, and she’s been as good a mother as she ‘s been a queen.”

“I guess she has, Abby,” agreed Mrs. Todd instantly. “How was it you happened to get such a good look at her? I meant to ask you again when I was here t’ other day.”

“Our ship was layin’ in the Thames, right there above Wapping. We was dischargin’ cargo, and under orders to clear as quick as we could for Bordeaux to take on an excellent freight o’ French goods,” explained Mrs. Martin eagerly. “I heard that the Queen was goin’ to a great review of her army, and would drive out o’ her Buckin’ham Palace about ten o’clock in the mornin’, and I run aft to Albert, my husband, and brother Horace where they was standin’ together by the hatchway, and told ’em they must one of ’em take me. They laughed, I was in such a hurry, and said they could n’t go; and I found they meant it and got sort of impatient when I began to talk, and I was ‘most broken-hearted; ‘t was all the reason I had for makin’ that hard voyage. Albert could n’t help often reproachin’ me, for he did so resent the sea, an’ I ‘d known how ‘t would be before we sailed; but I ‘d minded nothing all the way till then, and I just crep’ back to my cabin an’ begun to cry. They was disappointed about their ship’s cook, an’ I ‘d cooked for fo’c’s’le an’ cabin myself all the way over; ‘t was dreadful hard work, specially in rough weather; we ‘d had head winds an’ a six weeks’ voyage. They ‘d acted sort of ashamed o’ me when I pled so to go ashore, an’ that hurt my feelin’s most of all. But Albert come below pretty soon; I ‘d never given way so in my life, an’ he begun to act frightened, and treated me gentle just as he did when we was goin’ to be married, an’ when I got over sobbin’ he went on deck and saw Horace an’ talked it over what they could do; they really had their duty to the vessel, and could n’t be spared that day. Horace was real good when he understood everything, and he come an’ told me I ‘d more than worked my passage an’ was goin’ to do just as I liked now we was in port. He ‘d engaged a cook, too, that was comin’ aboard that mornin’, and he was goin’ to send the ship’s carpenter with me–a nice fellow from up Thomaston way; he ‘d gone to put on his ashore clothes as quick’s he could. So then I got ready, and we started off in the small boat and rowed up river. I was afraid we were too late, but the tide was setting up very strong, and we landed an’ left the boat to a keeper, and I run all the way up those great streets and across a park. ‘Twas a great day, with sights o’ folks everywhere, but ‘t was just as if they was nothin’ but wax images to me. I kep’ askin’ my way an’ runnin’ on, with the carpenter comin’ after as best he could, and just as I worked to the front o’ the crowd by the palace, the gates was flung open and out she came; all prancin’ horses and shinin’ gold, and in a beautiful carriage there she sat; ‘t was a moment o’ heaven to me. I saw her plain, and she looked right at me so pleasant and happy, just as if she knew there was somethin’ different between us from other folks.”