aper had
I not suggested the Vicomte's services. Be this as it may, I did
not hold I was bound to combat with her sense of gratitude, for
Heaven knows I have so often suffered under an over-sufficiency of
undeserved censure that a little overflowing of approbation was
most welcome.

We hoped to be off early the next morning, but, alas, on our
awakening the wind was as unfavourable as before, and there were
no signs of a change. It was an anxious day for all of us. It was
clear enough the Duke of Newcastle had suspected me, and though it
was possible he did not realise my importance, it was quite probable
he would have Lady Jane's following closely watched for the presence
of Captain "Fitzgerald," as he chose to style me. The proximity of
the _Triumphant_ and her over-hospitable commander, with his prying
friend Mr. Hargreaves, was never out of my mind, and it was with
no small uneasiness I learned the Governor of the town had been
unceasing in his attentions to the two ladies. True, this may have
meant nothing but pure civility, but the purest civility may prove
as embarrassing as the commonest intrusion when one has anything
to conceal. Confound the man! He pressed his ill-timed courtesies
upon us twenty times a day, and I could not but grow apprehensive
when I marked the scarce-concealed curiosity with which he regarded
me. Had I been a slave in a barracoon, my points could not have
been gone over more carefully; and had I been both deaf and dumb,
my qualities could not have been discussed with more openness.
Never before had I realised that even a lackey might resent hearing
himself discussed like an animal at a fair, and Lady Jane took a
perverse delight in provoking the Governor's critiques when I was
within earshot. Our morning walk in his garden will serve as an
ensample.

"Has your fellow any experience of travel," the Governor would ask,
stopping in his walk and eyeing me as if he were at a court-martial,
"or is he as useless as the rest of his kind?"

"I've no doubt hell prove stupid enough when we get where we really
need him," she would answer, coolly, bending over some favourite
flower. "'Tis really shameful the lying recommendation one's friends
give servants nowadays."

"He looks stupid enough to prove honest," growled the Governor,
"but if he were put through a few weeks' drill, with my sergeant's
cane behind those fat calves of his, 'twould smarten him up a bit."

"What lovely Gueldre roses!" ex