nd Peter
behaves as though there is some mysterious secret between us. What would
you do?"

Mr. Hartley took his friend's arm and paced thoughtfully up and down the
garden.

"Why not marry her?" he said, at last.

"Because I don't want to," said the captain, almost violently.

"You'd be safer at sea, then," said the other.

"The ship won't be ready for sea for weeks yet," said Captain Trimblett,
dolefully. "She's going on a time-charter, and before she is taken over
she has got to be thoroughly overhauled. As fast as they put one thing
right something else is found to be wrong."

"Go to London and stay with your children for a bit, then," said
Hartley. "Give out that you are only going for a day or two, and then
don't turn up till the ship sails."

The captain's face brightened. "I believe Vyner would let me go," he
replied. "I could go in a few days' time, at any rate. And, by the
way--Joan!"

"Eh?" said Hartley.

"Write to your brother-in-law at Highgate, and send her there for a
time," said the captain. "Write and ask him to invite her. Keep her and
young Vyner apart before things go too far."

"I'll see how things go for a bit," said Hartley, slowly. "It's awkward
to write and ask for an invitation. And where do your ideas of fate
come in?". "They come in all the time," said the captain, with great
seriousness. "Very likely my difficulty was made on purpose for us to
think of a way of getting you out of yours. Or it might be Joan's fate
to meet somebody in London at her uncle's and marry him. If she goes we
might arrange to go up together, so that I could look after her."

"I'll think it over," said his friend, holding out his hand. "I must be
going."

"I'll come a little way with you," said the captain, leading the way
into the house. "I don't suppose Peter will be in yet, but he might; and
I've had more of him lately than I want."

He took up his hat and, opening the door, followed Hartley out into the
road. The evening was warm, and they walked slowly, the captain still
discoursing on fate and citing various instances of its working which
had come under his own observation. He mentioned, among others, the
case of a mate of his who found a wife by losing a leg, the unfortunate
seaman falling an easy victim to the nurse who attended him.

"He always put it down to the effects of the chloroform," concluded the
captain; "but my opinion is, it was to be."

He paused at Hartley's gate, and was just