back into my own chamber, there to see (through the chink between door
and post) the untimely old mischief-maker herself pass slowly, sour
and solemn, towards her apartments, leaning upon her other niece's
arm. How could I have thought _that_ baggage like my princess?
Handsome, if you will; but, with her saucy eye, her raven head, her
brown cheek, no more to be compared to my stately lily than brass to
gold!"

The host listening wonderingly, his eyes fixed with kindly gravity
upon the speaker as he rattled on, here gave a slight start, all
unnoticed of his friend.

"The next morning, when I had seen the coach and its precious freight
move on once more northward, I began the retreat south, hugging myself
upon luck and success. I had business in Salcombe--perhaps you may
have heard of the Salcombe schooners--in connection with the fitting
out of that sailing wonder, the _Peregrine_. And so," concluded
Captain Jack, laughing again in exuberance of joy, "you may possibly
guess one of the reasons that has brought her and me round by your
island."

There ensued a long silence, filled with thoughts, equally pressing
though of widely different complexion, on either side of the hearth.

* * * * *

During the meal, which was presently set forth and proclaimed ready by
Rene, the talk, as was natural in that watchful attendant's presence,
ran only on general topics, and was in consequence fitful and
unspontaneous. But when the two men, for all their difference of age,
temper, and pursuits so strongly, yet so oddly united in sympathy,
were once more alone, they naturally fell back under the influence of
the more engrossing strain of reflection. Again there was silence,
while each mused, gazing into space and vaguely listening to the
plash of high water under the window.

"It must have been a strong motive," said Sir Adrian, after his dreamy
fashion, like one thinking aloud, "to induce a man like you to abandon
his honourable name."

Captain Jack flushed at these words, drew his elbows from the table,
and shot a keen, inquiring glance at his friend, which, however, fell
promptly before the latter's unconscious gaze and was succeeded by one
of reflective melancholy. Then, with a slight sigh, he raised his
glass to the lamp, and while peering abstractedly through the ruby,
"The story of turning my back upon my house," he said musingly,
"shaking its very dust off my feet, so to speak, and startin