e wind, and ran up my lug for home.

"So you saw Torode himself, Phil? And what is he like?" asked my
grandfather, as I told them the day's doings.

"Big, black, grim-looking fellow. Just what you'd expect. On the whole I'm
not sorry I'm going with John Ozanne. He seems pleased to have me too, and
that's something."

"I'd much sooner think of you with him," said my mother. "I know nothing of
Monsieur Torode, but nobody seems to like him."

George Hamon said much the same thing, and spoke highly of John Ozanne as a
cautious seaman, which I well knew him to be.

Jeanne Falla laughed heartily when I told her of my visit to Brecqhou,
which I did very fully.

"Mon Gyu, Phil, mon gars, but you're getting on! And you told her to her
face before them all that you wanted to marry her? It's as odd a style of
wooing as ever I heard."

"Well, you see, I wanted there to be no mistake about it, Aunt Jeanne. If
I don't see Carette again before I leave, she will know how the land lies
at all events. If she takes to young Torode while I'm away it's because she
likes him best."

"And she,--Carette,--what did she say to it?"

"She didn't say anything."

"Tuts! How did she look, boy? A girl tells more with her face and her eyes
than with her tongue, even when they say opposite things."

"I'm not sure how she took it, Aunt Jeanne. How would you have taken it,
now?"

"Ma fe! It would depend," she laughed, her old face creasing up with
merriment. "If it was Monsieur Right I wouldn't have minded maybe, though I
might be a bit taken aback at the newest way in courting."

"Well, I thought she looked something like that. And then, afterwards, I
wasn't sure she wasn't angry about it. I don't know. I've had so little to
do with girls, you see."

"And you'd not know much more, however much you'd had. You're only a boy
still, mon gars."

"Well, I'm going to do a man's work, and it's for Carette I'm going to do
it. Put in a good word for me while I'm away, won't you now, Aunt Jeanne?
Carette is more to me than anything else in the world."

"Ay, well! We'll see. And you saw Torode himself?"

And I told her all I had to tell about Torode, and John Ozanne, whom she
had known as a boy.

"He was always good-hearted was John, but a bit slow and easy-going," said
she. "But we'll hope for the best."

"Will Carette be across in the next day or two?"

"I doubt it. Those two who got hurt will need her. If you don't see her you
shall lea