into my head that Adam was in love with her, or had been; but
that, as he had little besides his pay to depend on, he could not
indulge a dream of marrying. From what I afterwards learned, I was
right in this conjecture. Poor fellow! he had loved her well and
deeply, but he had never told his love. She might have suspected his
attachment, but with the tact and delicacy of a right-minded woman, she
did not allow him to discover that she did so, but endeavoured, by the
frank kindness of her words and manner, to take away the bitterness from
the wound she was inflicting. I do not mean to say, however, that at
the time I knew this, but I made a pretty shrewd guess at the truth.

In a little time Dicky came hurrying up to me with a look full of
importance.

"I say, D'Arcy, I've found out all about it. I heard our medico tell
Old Nip (meaning the purser) that Vernon proposed a few days ago to Miss
Norman, and was accepted; so they are regularly engaged, you know, and
he has a right to dance with her as often as he likes. What fun for
him! I know that I should like to be in his place. That's her father:
not the tall man with the white hair, but the shorter one next him. He
looks almost too young to be her father, doesn't he? Perhaps his being
ill makes him look so. They are soon going home; but they are to stop
at Gibraltar, so the doctor says."

"I am afraid you've been an eavesdropper, Dicky, to hear all this," I
observed; "and that, you know, is not a very creditable character."

"I know that as well as you do," he answered; "but I could not help
myself, for I was jammed up in the refreshment room between two fat
Maltese ladies and the supper-table, and I couldn't have moved without
the risk of staving in their sides with my elbows. Old Nip and the
medico were on the other side of them, sipping their negus, and didn't
see me."

"That's all right; and small blame to you, Dicky," said I. "Well, I
heartily wish Mr Vernon joy; and if his love don't run smooth, and he
ever wants a helping hand, I only hope he'll let me give it him."

"There's nothing I should like better too, independent of my regard for
Mr Vernon," observed Dicky, pompously.

I remember that we long discussed the probabilities of Mr Vernon's
requiring our services; and we came to the conclusion that, though we
should be delighted to help him to obtain the lady's hand in any way he
might require, in principle the running away with a lady was