e no
child, or you would not ask for mine!"

"And how do you know that, my sweet madam!" said the adventurer, turning
first deadly pale, and then glowing red. Her last words had touched him
to the quick in some unexpected place; and rising, he courteously laid
her hand to his lips, and said--"I say no more. Farewell, sweet madam,
and God send all men such wives as you."

"And all wives," said she, smiling, "such husbands as mine."

"Nay, I will not say that," answered he, with a half sneer--and then,
"Farewell, friend Leigh--farewell, gallant Dick Grenville. God send I
see thee Lord High Admiral when I come home. And yet, why should I come
home? Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles?"

"Tut, tut, man! good words," said Leigh; "let us drink to our merry
meeting before you go." And rising, and putting the tankard of malmsey
to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and saying, "To the
fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman," drank, and put the
cup into Oxenham's hand.

The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild. Whether from the
liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs. Leigh's last
speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes. He lifted the cup,
and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped it on the table,
and pointed, staring and trembling, up and down, and round the room, as
if following some fluttering object.

"There! Do you see it? The bird!--the bird with the white breast!"

Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and an
old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--"Nonsense, brave Jack
Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the white feather. Mrs.
Leigh waits to pledge you."

Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, drinking
deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, never hinting
again at his strange exclamation.

After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, Mrs.
Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence. At last--"God help
him!" said she.

"Amen!" said Grenville, "for he never needed it more. But, indeed,
madam, I put no faith in such omens."

"But, Sir Richard, that bird has been seen for generations before the
death of any of his family. I know those who were at South Tawton when
his mother died, and his brother also; and they both saw it. God help
him! for, after all, he is a proper man."

"So many a lady has thought before now,