England of whose immediate
services he stood in need. By the time that Sir Thomas had reached
Ostend he had found that no such clergyman was known in the place.
There was a regular English clergyman who would be very happy to
marry him,--and to accept the usual fees,--after the due performance
of certain preliminaries as ordained by the law, and as usual at
Ostend. The lady, no doubt, could be married at Ostend, after such
preliminaries,--as she might have been married also in England. All
this was communicated by the Captain to Gertrude,--who was still very
unwell,--at her bedroom door. Her conduct during this trying time was
quite beyond reproach,--and also his,--as Captain Batsby afterwards
took an opportunity of assuring her father.

"What on earth, Sir, is the meaning of all this?" said Sir Thomas,
encountering the man who was not his son-in-law in the sitting-room
of the hotel.

"I have just run away with your daughter, Sir Thomas. That is the
simple truth."

"And I have got the trouble of taking her back again."

"I have behaved like a gentleman through it all, Sir Thomas," said
the Captain, thus defending his own character and the lady's.

"You have behaved like a fool. What on earth am I to think of
it, Sir? You were asked down to my house because you gave me to
understand that you proposed to ask my niece, Miss Dormer, to be your
wife; and now you have run away with my daughter. Is that behaviour
like a gentleman?"

"I must explain myself?"

"Well, Sir?" Captain Batsby found the explanation very difficult; and
hummed and hawed a great deal. "Do you mean to say that it was a lie
from beginning to end about Miss Dormer?" Great liberties of speech
are allowed to gentlemen whose daughters have been run away with, and
whose hospitality has been outraged.

"Oh dear no. What I said then was quite true. It was my intention.
But--but--." The perspiration broke out upon the unhappy man's brow
as the great immediate trouble of his situation became clear to him.
"There was no lie,--no lie at all. I beg to assure you, Sir Thomas,
that I am not a man to tell a lie."

"How has it all been, then?"

"When I found how very superior a person your daughter was!"

"It isn't a month since she was engaged to somebody else," said the
angry father, forgetting all propriety in his indignation.

"Gertrude?" demanded Captain Batsby.

"You are two fools. So you gave up my niece?"

"Oh dear yes, altogether. She didn't c