en drinking
success to Westward-ho?"

"And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and the
noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, in
that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho."

"Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not? Sun,
moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lower
world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?"

"God forbid, Frank!"

"Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams?
Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, and
long to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? They bury
men with their faces to the East. I should rather have mine turned
to the West, Amyas, when I die; for I cannot but think it some divine
instinct which made the ancient poets guess that Elysium lay beneath the
setting sun. It is bound up in the heart of man, that longing for the
West. I complain of no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmost
sea, as David wished to flee, and be at peace."

"Complain of no one for fleeing thither?" asked Amyas. "That is more
than I do."

Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then--

"No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you just now,
for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho."

"Do you wish me to go, then?"

"God knows," said Frank, after a moment's pause. "But I must tell you
now, I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at Bideford which--"

"Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my way
hither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, but to ask
your advice and her permission."

"True heart! noble heart!" cried Frank. "I knew you would be stanch!"

"Westward-ho it is, then?"

"Can we escape?"

"We?"

"Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?"

Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's length; as
he did so, he could feel through, that his brother's arms were but skin
and bone.

"You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!"

Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.

"I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the mother
of all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her bosom again
than Humphrey Gilbert did."

"But, Frank,--my mother?"

"My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her."

"Impossible! She will never give you up!"

"All things are possible to them