‘Oh!’ the young lady said, having hung back a little from their conversation. ‘Have they been beaten, at Harlesden? Georgie will have been there—I must go and tell mother—’ She half-turned, then turned back and curtseyed, and then hesitantly raised her hand a little. Hollin, stepping towards, her brought it to his lips, also a little hesitantly, and said, ‘Your servant, Miss Jemson, and I hope my rounds might bring me again—’

‘I hope so, too,’ she said, pink, and having dared so far, turned and fled.

‘Sir, if the news is in, and Miller will tell them where we are, we might keep looking—’ Hollin said, turning back, his own cheeks a little ruddy.

‘Oh, no; no, thank you, there'll be none of that,’ Miller said. ‘Your orders are not to go wandering over all Creation, they are to get the dragon and come back; and well, if you haven't got the dragon, you can only do what is left, and that is to come back. If they want you to keep looking, they will tell you so. We will fly in company, like we ought when there is news like this to be bringing back, in case one of us is brought down. A hundred dragons out wild, eating people as like as cows? I don't know what you was thinking not to return at once, except to save the neck of one as don't deserve—’

‘Captain Miller—’ Hollin said.

‘Enough,’ Laurence said. ‘I do not intend to be the subject of a quarrel in circumstances such as these. Captain Hollin, we had some rational hope of finding Temeraire quickly, having arrived so shortly after the dispersal of the breeding grounds; but now we can have none. I am most sensible of your generosity, but will not trespass upon it further. Let us go at once.’

He had steeled himself to it, and now wanted nothing more than to have it over. The quicker he returned, the less damage would be done by his having kept them away so long, selfishly, further contrary to his duty; success only could have made it forgivable. Even then he ought to have been reproached. Granby had been right, all along. His discipline had been wholly corrupted, Laurence saw now. Perhaps the effects were all the worse because he had not been brought up properly within the Corps, and had let the sudden liberty of the service, looser by necessity than the Navy, go to his head completely and become license.