y
own hands, but by--" and he swore a fearful oath, "the girl was
altogether different to those I have had to do with. Beautiful, I
believe you, she is, but as haughty as if she was a born princess; and
just as I was going to show her what sort of a fellow I was, she slipped
away and ran off towards a young chap and took his arm, just as if she
had been accustomed to keep company with him. I watched them as they
went by, and he seemed to be looking for me in no very friendly mood,
for I saw him double his fists, and he was not the sort of fellow I
wished to come to close quarters with, or I would have gone up to him
and asked what he meant by carrying off the girl I was talking to."

"The long and short of it," said Gaffin, as soon as he could master his
anger, "is that you frightened the young lady, and got a rebuff which
you might have expected. But as for the young fellow, I know who he is,
and he won't interfere with you. Just do you go on and persevere, and
if you do not succeed we must try other means. Marry the girl I am
determined you shall, whether she likes it or not, and I can depend upon
you. Remember I am not one to have my plans thwarted, least of all by
my own son."

"I will not thwart them, you may trust me for that," answered Miles.
"The girl is about as pretty as I ever set eyes on, and I am obliged to
you for putting me up to the matter. But, I say, I should like to know
more about her. You led me to suppose that there is some secret you had
got hold of--what is it?"

"That's nothing to you at present. Your business is to win the girl,
whether she is a fisherman's or a lord's daughter. She was brought up
as the Halliburt's child, though I suppose she knows that she is not,
yet she has no reason to think much of herself, except on account of her
good looks, and those, from what I have heard of the old ladies she
lives with, they would have taught her not to pride herself on."

Gaffin's last directions to his son were to keep himself quiet for a
time, and to wait his opportunity for again meeting May under more
favourable circumstances.

"I will write to Crotch and tell him that a matter of importance keeps
you from returning just yet, and if good luck attends us you may not see
his face again. I will not say that though, eh?" and Gaffin indulged in
a chuckle, the nearest approach he ever made to a laugh.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

CAUGHT IN A THUNDERSTORM.

Harry's ship had been p