have provided at the same time for both his idols; to have found in the
guide and companion of the one a commander for the other. What is a
husband but the pilot on the voyage of matrimony? Why not then the same
conductor for the vessel and for the girl? The affairs of a household
have their tides, their ebbs and flows, and he who knows how to steer a
bark, ought to know how to guide a woman's destiny, subject as both are
to the influences of the moon and the wind. Sieur Clubin being only
fifteen years younger than Lethierry, would necessarily be only a
provisional master for the Durande. It would be necessary to find a
young captain, a permanent master, a true successor of the founder,
inventor, and creator of the first channel steamboat. A captain for the
Durande who should come up to his ideal, would have been, already,
almost a son-in-law in Lethierry's eyes. Why not make him son-in-law in
a double sense? The idea pleased him. The husband _in posse_ of
Deruchette haunted his dreams. His ideal was a powerful seaman, tanned
and browned by weather, a sea athlete. This, however, was not exactly
the ideal of Deruchette. Her dreams, if dreams they could even be
called, were of a more ethereal character.

The uncle and the niece were at all events agreed in not being in haste
to seek a solution of these problems. When Deruchette began to be
regarded as a probable heiress, a crowd of suitors had presented
themselves. Attentions under these circumstances are not generally worth
much. Mess Lethierry felt this. He would grumble out the old French
proverb, "_A maiden of gold, a suitor of brass_." He politely showed the
fortune-seekers to the door. He was content to wait, and so was
Deruchette.

It was, perhaps, a singular fact, that he had little inclination for the
local aristocracy. In that respect Mess Lethierry showed himself not
entirely English. It will hardly be believed that he even refused for
Deruchette a Ganduel of Jersey, and a Bugnet Nicolin of Sark. People
were bold enough to affirm, although we doubt if this were possible,
that he had even declined the proposals of a member of the family of
Edou, which is evidently descended from "Edou-ard" (Anglice Edward) the
Confessor.

XII

AN ANOMALY IN THE CHARACTER OF LETHIERRY

Mess Lethierry had a failing, and a serious one. He detested a priest;
though not as an individual, but as an institution. Reading one day--for
he used to read--in a work of Voltaire