ht
over to England, and so deep in thought that he paid no heed to his
companion. Meantime, Rodd, without any desire to play the eavesdropper,
lay listening to the scraps of conversation which came up through the
cabin skylight, growing a little louder than usual, for, as was
occasionally the case, an argument was afloat respecting the late war,
the doctor according to his wont growing wroth upon an allusion being
made by his guest to the ex-Emperor Napoleon; and there were evidently
threatenings of a storm, which was, however, suppressed by the grave
dignity of the Count and a feeling of annoyance which attacked Uncle
Paul upon realising that he had ventured upon dangerous ground.

"Oh, Uncle Paul," said Rodd to himself, and he lay and laughed softly,
making Morny start.

"Was I talking aloud?" said the French lad, flushing.

"You? No! Didn't you hear? It was Uncle Paul. Your father was
talking about Napoleon, and directly his name is mentioned uncle begins
to boil over."

"Ah, yes, so you have told me, and I gathered something of the kind. My
father should not have spoken about the Emperor, though he venerates his
name."

"Do you?" said Rodd.

"I?" replied Morny proudly. "Of course. He is the greatest man who
ever lived."

"I say; I'm not Uncle Paul."

"Of course not. But why do you say that?"

"Because it seems as if you were trying to lead me on, like your father
did with uncle."

"Ah, no, no, don't think that. Better to let such things rest."

"Yes," said Rodd. "I didn't hear much of what they were saying, only
they talked loudly sometimes about the way the French and English hate
one another. It seems so stupid. Why should they? I don't hate you;
and I suppose you don't hate me."

"Of course not! You have given me plenty of cause."

"Whoa!" shouted Rodd. "You are getting on dangerous ground again. Now,
look here; why should the French hate the English?"

"Because the English never did us anything but harm."

"Nonsense!" said Rodd coolly. "Now, look here, suppose you and I had a
good fight, and I got the best of it--gave you an unlucky crack on the
bridge of your nose, and made both your eyes swell up so that you
couldn't see."

"Well, it would be very brutal," said Morny. "Gentlemen should fight
with the small sword."

"Oh, I like that!" said Rodd merrily. "And then one of them sticks it
in the other's corpus and makes him bleed, if he does nothing worse.
Why, people hav