a young, wealthy, and unmarried
peer, and he shrewdly suspected that Mrs. Nunn would make an exception
in his favour on market day in Charlestown.

Anne, wondering what he could have to say to her, led the way past the
church to the open road that encircled the island. Then she moderated
her pace and looked up at him from the deeps of her bonnet. Her gaze
was cooler and more impersonal than he was wont to encounter, but it
crossed his burdened mind that a blooming face even if unfashionably
sunburnt, and a supple vigorous body were somewhat attractive after a
surfeit of dolls with their languid fine-lady airs and affectation of
physical delicacy; which he, being no fool, suspected of covering fine
appetites and stubborn selfishness. But while he was young enough to
admire the fresh beauty of his companion, it was the strength and
decision, the subtle suggestion of high-mindedness, in this young
lady's aspect, which had led him to a resolution that he now proceeded
to arrange in words as politic as might be.

"It may seem presumptuous to speak after so short an acquaintance----"

"Not after your rescue last night. I had like to have died of
embarrassment. I am not accustomed to have half a room gazing at me."

"You will," he said gallantly. "But it is kind of you to make it
easier. This is it. I have been--am--very unhappy about a friend of
mine here. Of course you know the work of one, who, many believe, is
our greatest poet--Byam Warner?"

Anne drew her breath in and her eyelashes together. "I have read his
poems," she said shortly.

"I see! Like many others you cannot dissociate the genius from the
man. Because a fatal weakness----"

"What have I said, pray, that you should jump to such a conclusion?"
She had recovered her breath but not her poise. "No one could admire
him more than I. About his private life I know little and care less.
He lives on this island, does he not?"

"We shall pass his house presently, but God knows if he is in it."

"He is a West Indian, is he not?"

"A scion of two of its foremost families, whose distinction by no
means began with their emigration to the Antilles. One of his
ancestors, Sir Thomas Warner, colonised most of these islands for the
crown--in the seventeenth century. A descendant living on Trinidad,
has in his possession the ring which Queen Elizabeth gave to
Essex--you recall my friend's poem and the magnificent invective put
into the frantic Queen's mouth at the be