is ease with ladies
of the beau-monde, found himself oddly constrained before this frank and
unsophisticated niece of a colonial planter.

They moved on in silence and as if by common consent towards the
brilliant sunshine where the pergola was intersected by the avenue
leading upwards to the house. Across this patch of light fluttered a
gorgeous butterfly, that was like black and scarlet velvet and large
as a man's hand. His lordship's brooding eyes followed it out of sight
before he answered.

"It is not easy. Stab me, it is not. He was a man who deserved well. And
amongst us we have marred his chances: your uncle, because he could not
forget his rancour; you, because... because having told him that in the
King's service he would find his redemption of what was past, you would
not afterwards admit to him that he was so redeemed. And this, although
concern to rescue you was the chief motive of his embracing that same
service."

She had turned her shoulder to him so that he should not see her face.

"I know. I know now," she said softly. Then after a pause she added the
question: "And you? What part has your lordship had in this--that you
should incriminate yourself with us?"

"My part?" Again he hesitated, then plunged recklessly on, as men do
when determined to perform a thing they fear. "If I understood him
aright, if he understood aright, himself, my part, though entirely
passive, was none the less effective. I implore you to observe that
I but report his own words. I say nothing for myself." His lordship's
unusual nervousness was steadily increasing. "He thought, then--so
he told me--that my presence here had contributed to his inability to
redeem himself in your sight; and unless he were so redeemed, then was
redemption nothing."

She faced him fully, a frown of perplexity bringing her brows together
above her troubled eyes.

"He thought that you had contributed?" she echoed. It was clear she
asked for enlightenment. He plunged on to afford it her, his glance a
little scared, his cheeks flushing.

"Aye, and he said so in terms which told me something that I hope above
all things, and yet dare not believe, for, God knows, I am no coxcomb,
Arabella. He said... but first let me tell you how I was placed. I had
gone aboard his ship to demand the instant surrender of your uncle whom
he held captive. He laughed at me. Colonel Bishop should be a hostage
for his safety. By rashly venturing aboard his ship, I aff