nd think no harm
of it, on our side of the water.

"Never, Amos. In no godly country."

"Tut! I have seen folks courting in New York."

"Ah, New York! I said in no godly country. I cannot answer for New York
or Virginia. South of Cape Cod, or of New Haven at the furthest, there
is no saying what folk will do. Very sure I am that in Boston or Salem
or Plymouth she would see the bridewell and he the stocks for half as
much. Ah!" He shook his head and bent his brows at the guilty couple.

But they and their old relative were far too engrossed with their own
affairs to give a thought to the Puritan seaman. De Catinat had told
his tale in a few short, bitter sentences, the injustice that had been
done to him, his dismissal from the king's service, and the ruin which
had come upon the Huguenots of France. Adele, as is the angel instinct
of woman, thought only of her lover and his misfortunes as she listened
to his story, but the old merchant tottered to his feet when he heard of
the revocation of the Edict, and stood with shaking limbs, staring about
him in bewilderment.

"What am I to do?" he cried. "What am I to do? I am too old to begin
my life again."

"Never fear, uncle," said De Catinat heartily. "There are other lands
beyond France."

"But not for me. No, no; I am too old. Lord, but Thy hand is heavy
upon Thy servants. Now is the vial opened, and the carved work of the
sanctuary thrown down. Ah, what shall I do, and whither shall I turn?"
He wrung his hands in his perplexity.

"What is amiss with him, then, Amos?" asked the seaman. "Though I know
nothing of what he says, yet I can see that he flies a distress signal."

"He and his must leave the country, Ephraim."

"And why?"

"Because they are Protestants, and the king will not abide their creed."

Ephraim Savage was across the room in an instant, and had enclosed the
old merchant's thin hand in his own great knotted fist. There was a
brotherly sympathy in his strong grip and rugged weather-stained face
which held up the other's courage as no words could have done.

"What is the French for 'the scarlet woman,' Amos?" he asked, glancing
over his shoulder. "Tell this man that we shall see him through.
Tell him that we've got a country where he'll just fit in like a bung in
a barrel. Tell him that religion is free to all there, and not a papist
nearer than Baltimore or the Capuchins of the Penobscot. Tell him that
if he wants to come, t