"Tall, Peggy?"
"No, a long wisp"ry man."
"I suppose he helps the Captain to spend his money?"
"Never a ha"po"th, ma"am, "deed no; but ter"ble onaisy at it, and rigging him constant But no use at all, at all. The Capt"n"s intarmined to ruin hisself. Somebody should just take him and wallop him, ding dong, afore he"s wasted all he"s got, and hasn"t a penny left at him."
"How dare you, Peggy?"
Peggy was dismissed in anger, and Mrs. Quiggin sat down to write a letter to Lovibond. She begged him to pardon the liberty of one who was no stranger, though they had never met, in asking him to come to her without delay. This done, and marked _private_, she called Peggy back and bade her to take the letter to Willie Quarrie, and tell him to give it to the gentleman before the Captain came down to breakfast in the morning.
The day was Sunday, the weather was brilliant, the window was open, and the salt breath of the sea was floating into the room. With the rustle of silk like a breeze in a pine tree Jenny Crow came back from a walk, swinging a parasol by a ring about her wrist.
"Such an adventure!" she said, sinking into a chair. "A man, of course! I saw him first on the Head at the skirts of the crowd that was listening to the Bishop"s preaching. Such a manly fellow!
Broad-shouldered, big-chested, standing square on his legs like a rock.
Dark, of course, and such eyes, Nelly! Brown--no black-brown. I like black-brown eyes in a man, don"t you?"
Captain Davy"s eyes were of the darkest brown. Mrs. Quiggin gave no sign.
"Then his dress--so simple. None of your cuffs and ruffs, and great high collars like a cart going for c.o.ke. Just a blue serge suit, and a monkey jacket. I like a man in a monkey jacket."
Captain Davy wore a monkey jacket; Mrs. Quiggin colored slightly.
"A sailor, thinks I. There"s something so free and open about a sailor, isn"t there?"
"Do you think so, Jenny?" said Mrs. Quiggin in a faint voice.
"I"m sure of it, Nelly. The sailor is just like the sea. He"s noisy--so is the sea. Liable to storms--so is the sea. Bl.u.s.ters and boils, and rocks and reels--so does the sea. But he"s sunny too, and open and free, and healthy and bracing, and the sea is all that as well."
Mrs. Quiggin was thinking of Captain Davy, and tingling with pleasure and shame, but she only said, falteringly, "Didn"t you talk of some adventure?"
"Oh, of course, certainly," said Jenny. "After he had listened a moment he went on, and I lost sight of him. Presently I went on, too, and walked across the Head until I came within sight of Port Soderick. Then I sat down by a great bowlder. So quiet up there, Nelly; not a sound except the squeal of the sea birds, the boo-oo of the big waves outside, and the plash-ash of the little ones on the beach below. All at once I heard a sigh. At that I looked to the other side of the bowlder, and there was my friend of the monkey jacket. I was going to rise, but he rose instead, and begged me not to trouble. Then I was vexed with myself, and said I hoped he wouldn"t disturb himself on my account."
"You never said that, Jenny Crow?"
"Why not, my dear? You wouldn"t have had me less courteous than he was.
So he stood and talked. You never heard such a voice, Nelly. Deep as a bell, and his Manx tongue was like music. Talk of the Irish brogue!
There"s no brogue in the world like the Manx, is there now, not if the right man is speaking it."
"So he was a Manxman," said Mrs. Quiggin, with a far-away look through the open window.
"Didn"t I say so before? But he has quite saddened me. I"m sure there"s trouble hanging over him. "I"ve been sailing foreign, ma"am," said he, "and I don"t know nothing--"."
"Oh, then he wasn"t a gentleman?" said Mrs. Quiggin.
Jenny fired up sharply. "Depends on what you call a gentleman, my dear.
Now, any man is a gentleman to me who can afford to dispense with the first two syllables of the name."
Mrs. Quiggin looked down at her feet.
"I only meant," she said meekly, "that your friend hasn"t as much education--."
"Then, perhaps, he has more brains," said Jenny. "That"s the way they"re sometimes divided, you know, and education isn"t everything."
"Do _you_ think that, Jenny?" said Mrs. Quiggin, with another long look through the window.
"Of course I do," said Jenny.
"And what did he say?"
"" I"ve been sailing foreign, ma"am," he said. "And I don"t know nothing that cut"s a man"s heart from its moorings like coming home same as a homing pigeon, and then wishing yourself back again same as a lost one.""
"Poor fellow!" said Mrs. Quiggin. "He must have found things changed since he went away."
"He must," said Jenny.
"Perhaps he has lost some one who was dear to him," said Mrs. Quiggin.
"Perhaps," said Jenny, with a sigh.
"His mother may be, or his sister--" began Mrs. Quiggin.
"Yes, or his wife." continued Jenny, with a moan.
Mrs. Quiggin drew up suddenly. "What"s his name?" she asked sharply.
"Nay, how could I ask him that?" said Jenny.
"Where does he live?" said Mrs. Quiggin.
"Or that either?" said Jenny.
Mrs. Quiggin"s eyes wandered slowly back to the window. "We"ve all got our troubles, Jenny," she said quietly.
"All," said Jenny. "I wonder if I shall ever see him again."
"Tell me if you do, Jenny?" said Mrs. Quiggin.
"I will, Nelly," said Jenny.
"Poor fellow, poor fellow," said Mrs. Quiggin.
As Jenny rose to remove her bonnet she shot a sly glance out of the corners of her eyes, and saw that Mrs. Quiggin was furtively wiping her own.
Meanwhile Lovibond at Fort Ann was telling a similar story to Captain Davy. He had left the house for a walk before Davy had come down to breakfast, and on returning at noon he found him immersed in the usual occupation of his mornings. This was that of reading and replying to his correspondence. Davy read with difficulty, and replied to all letters by check. His method of business was peculiar and original. He was stretched on the sofa with a pipe in his mouth, and the morning"s letters pigeonholed between his legs. Willie Quarrie sat at a table with a check-book before him. While Davy read the letters one by one he instructed Willie as to the nature of the answer, and Willie, with his head aslant, his mouth awry, and his tongue in his cheek, turned it into figures on the check-book.
As Lovibond came in Davy was knocking off the last batch for the day.
""Respected sir," he was reading, "I know you"ve a tender heart"...