not black. I wore it
when the captain married me."

"Where did you meet with him?" asked Magdalen, putting the
question as a chance means of increasing her scanty stock of
information on the subject of Captain Wragge.

"At the Dining-rooms," said Mrs. Wragge. "He was the hungriest
and the loudest to wait upon of the lot of 'em. I made more
mistakes with him than I did with all the rest of them put
together. He used to swear -- oh, didn't he use to swear! When he
left off swearing at me he married me. There was others wanted me
besides him. Bless you, I had my pick. Why not? When you have a
trifle of money left you that you didn't expect, if that don't
make a lady of you, what does? Isn't a lady to have her pick? I
had my trifle of money, and I had my pick, and I picked the
captain -- I did. He was the smartest and the shortest of them
all. He took  of me and my money. I'm here, the money's gone.
Don't you put that towel down on the table -- he won'