For one thing, we have suffered from French Papists in our Province of Maine, and a man who follows after one of them is thought to be lost to his family and friends, and as good as damned. For another thing, I had already seen Nathaniel and the lady exchange soft speeches beneath their breaths—speeches in which, I told myself, a meeting might have been arranged. Nathaniel had often proved himself quickwitted, and certainly the lady had found him pleasing; and I had come to know that two such people can, in a few whispered words, lay plans enough to wreck a dozen lives.

I may say that I have prejudices; nevertheless I hope that I have always kept an open mind; and suddenly I saw that this chance meeting was a stroke of good fortune. If Mr. Leonard had a ship that was to sail soon, my brother and I were precisely in need of such a means of transportation. More, Mr. Leonard looked to be a man as resourceful and trustworthy as he was silent; and Marie de Sabrevois would not be upon his ship.

Impulsively I pushed back my chair from the table, bowed, and held out my hand to Mr. Leonard. “We’re indebted,” I said. “Indebted for the chance to go with you. When is it you sail for America?”

III

WE WERE driven in state to our lodgings by these new acquaintances of ours; and it was settled, when they left us, that Mr. Leonard would come for us, four mornings hence, and that we would set off together on our homeward travels.

As their coach clattered away toward the dim lights of the Strand, leaving behind it the heady perfume of violets, it seemed to me that Nathaniel’s sigh was almost ecstatic. He was silent, too, climbing the stairs to our rooms; and this was unlike Nathaniel, who had something gay to say, usually, of everyone we met.

At length, knowing that the cleaner the break between Nathaniel and his enchantress, the sooner he would recover from his tender thoughts, I spoke my mind about her. “At Drury Lane the other night,” I reminded him, “you had no patience with the actresses who played the parts of Goneril and Regan. They were unreal, you said. No woman of position, you maintained, could be so hard.”

“Did I?” Nathaniel said indifferently.

I strove to speak mildly. “Nathaniel, you know I have your own good at heart, always; and I only say this for your own good. There was something about the lady we met tonight——”

The glance he shot at me was scornful. I hesitated, fumbling for words.

“So she put you in mind of Goneril and Regan?” he asked, with exaggerated politeness.

“If I’m not mistaken,” I said, “she has much in common with them.”

Nathaniel studied a picture on the wall, and laughed; and I thought best to ignore his manner of doing it.