eat sight; there were no
cattle finer on the island than were mine."

"And so shall they be again, my father," said Kate, her arms around his
neck.

It was then that Ben Greenway knocked upon the door.

Stede Bonnet's mind had been so much excited by what he had been talking
about that he saluted his brother-in-law and Dame Charter without once
thinking of his clothes. They looked upon him as if he were some unknown
foreigner, a person entirely removed from their customary sphere.

"Was this the once respectable Stede Bonnet?" asked Dame Charter to
herself. "Did such a man marry my sister!" thought Mr. Delaplaine. They
might have been surprised had they met him as a pirate, but his
appearance as a pirate's clerk amazed them.

Towards the end of the day Mr. Delaplaine and his party returned to the
Belinda, for there was no fit place for them to lodge in the town.
Although urged by all, Stede Bonnet would not accompany them. When
persuasion had been exhausted, Ben Greenway promised Kate that he would
be responsible for her father's appearance the next day, feeling safe in
so doing; for, even should Bonnet's shame return, there was no likely
way in which he could avoid his friends.

CHAPTER XXV

WISE MR. DELAPLAINE

Early in the next forenoon Kate and her companions prepared to make
another visit to the town. Naturally she wanted to be with her father as
much as possible and to exert upon him such influences as might make him
forget, in a degree, the so-called glories of his pirate life and return
with her and her uncle to Spanish Town, where, she believed, this
misguided man might yet surrender himself to the rural joys of other
days. Nay, more, he and she might hope for still further happiness in a
Jamaica home, for Madam Bonnet would not be there.

As she came up from below, impatient to depart, Kate noticed, getting
over the side, a gentleman who had just arrived in a small boat. He was
tall and good-looking, and very handsomely attired in a rich suit such
as was worn at that day by French and Spanish noblemen. A sword with an
elaborate hilt was by his side, and on his head a high cocked hat. There
was fine lace at his wrists and bosom, and he wore silk stockings, and
silver buckles on his shoes.

Kate started at meeting here a stranger, and in such an elaborate
attire. She had read of the rich dress of men of rank in Europe, but her
eyes had never fallen upon such a costume. The gentleman advanced