n her mind.
And instantly would have recalled the words had she been able. But Peter
Blood swept them lightly aside, reading into them none of her meaning,
as she feared he would.

"Aye--a deal of lies, devil a doubt, as I could prove to you."

"I cannot think why you should trouble to put yourself on your defence,"
she discouraged him.

"So that ye may think less badly of me than you do."

"What I think of you can be a very little matter to you, sir."

This was a disarming stroke. He abandoned combat for expostulation.

"Can ye say that now? Can ye say that, beholding me in this livery of a
service I despise? Didn't ye tell me that I might redeem the past? It's
little enough I am concerned to redeem the past save only in your eyes.
In my own I've done nothing at all that I am ashamed of, considering the
provocation I received."

Her glance faltered, and fell away before his own that was so intent.

"I... I can't think why you should speak to me like this," she said,
with less than her earlier assurance.

"Ah, now, can't ye, indeed?" he cried. "Sure, then, I'll be telling ye."

"Oh, please." There was real alarm in her voice. "I realize fully what
you did, and I realize that partly, at least, you may have been urged by
consideration for myself. Believe me, I am very grateful. I shall always
be grateful."

"But if it's also your intention always to think of me as a thief and a
pirate, faith, ye may keep your gratitude for all the good it's like to
do me."

A livelier colour crept into her cheeks. There was a perceptible heave
of the slight breast that faintly swelled the flimsy bodice of white
silk. But if she resented his tone and his words, she stifled her
resentment. She realized that perhaps she had, herself, provoked his
anger. She honestly desired to make amends.

"You are mistaken," she began. "It isn't that."

But they were fated to misunderstand each other.

Jealousy, that troubler of reason, had been over-busy with his wits as
it had with hers.

"What is it, then?" quoth he, and added the question: "Lord Julian?"

She started, and stared at him blankly indignant now.

"Och, be frank with me," he urged her, unpardonably. "'Twill be a
kindness, so it will."

For a moment she stood before him with quickened breathing, the colour
ebbing and flowing in her cheeks. Then she looked past him, and tilted
her chin forward.

"You... you are quite insufferable," she said. "I beg that you will let