ell the wealth of his brother. And here were Captain
Marmaduke and Lancelot and Marjorie all going to sea together and going
in company of Cornelys Jensen. And I know now that Master Nathaniel
knew Cornelys Jensen very well. But I did not know it then or dream it
as I turned from the window and looked at the handsome rascal, who
seemed agog to be going.

'Shall you need me longer, Captain?' Jensen asked. 'There is much to do
which should be doing.'

'Nay,' said the Captain, 'you are free, for me. I know that there is
much to do, and I know that you are the man to do it. But I shall see
you in the evening.'

Jensen saluted the Captain, nodded to me, and strode out of the room.
Then the Captain sat me down and talked for some twenty minutes of his
plan and his hope. If I did not understand much, I felt that I was a
fortunate fellow to be in such a glorious enterprise. I wish I had been
more mindful of all that he said, but my mind was ever somewhat of a
sieve for long speeches, and the dear gentleman spoke at length.

Presently he consulted his watch.

'The coach should be in soon,' he said. 'Let us go forth and await it.'

We went out of the Dolphin together into the hall, and there we came to
a halt, for he had thought upon some new point in his undertaking, and
he began to hold forth to me upon that.

I can see the whole place now--the dark oak walls, the dark oak stairs,
and my Captain's blue coat and scarlet face making a brave bit of colour
in the sombre place. The Noble Rose is gone long since, but that hall
lives in my memory for a thing that just then happened.

CHAPTER X

SHE COMES DOWN THE STAIRS

From the hall of the Noble Rose sprang an oak staircase, and at this
instant a girl began to descend the stairs. She was quite young--a tall
slip of a thing, who scarcely seemed nineteen--and she had hair of a
yellow that looked as if it loved the sun, and her eyes were of a softer
blue than my friend's. I knew that at last I looked on Marjorie,
Lancelot's Marjorie, the maid whose very picture had seemed farther from
me than the farthest star. Her face was fresh, as of one who has enjoyed
liberally the open air, and not sat mewed within four walls like a town
miss. I noted, too, that her steps as she came down the stairs were not
taken mincingly, as school-girls are wont to walk, but with decision,
like a boy.

Indeed, though she was a beautiful girl, and soon to make a beautiful
woman, there was