"What are you reading, Martin?" asked my father, who had just come in,
and was painfully fitting on a pair of new and very tight kid gloves. I
read the passage aloud, without comment.

"Very good," he remarked, chuckling, "upon my word! I did not know there
was any thing as rich as that in the old book! Who says it, Martin? A
very wise preacher he was, and knew what he was talking about. Had seen
life, eh? It's as true as--as--as the gospel."

I could not help laughing at the comparison he was forced to; yet I felt
angry with him and myself.

"What do you say about my mother and Julia, sir?" I asked.

He chuckled again cynically, examining with care a spot on the palm of
one of his gloves. "Ha! ha! my son"--I hated to hear him say "my
son"--"I will answer you in the words of another wise man: 'Most
virtuous women, like hidden treasures, are secure because nobody seeks
after them.'"

So saying, he turned out of the room, swinging his gold-headed cane
jauntily between his fingers.

I visited Sark again in about ten days, to set Olivia free from my
embargo upon her walking. I allowed her to walk a little way along a
smooth meadow-path, leaning on my arm; and I found that she was a head
lower than myself--a beautiful height for a woman. That time Captain
Carey had set me down at the Havre Gosselin, appointing me to meet him
at the Creux Harbor, which was exactly on the opposite side of the
island. In crossing over to it--a distance of rather more than a mile--I
encountered Julia's friends, Emma and Maria Brouard.

"You here again, Martin!" exclaimed Emma.

"Yes," I answered; "Captain Carey set me down at the Havre Gosselin, and
is gone round to meet me at the Creux."

"You have been to see that young person?" asked Maria.

"Yes," I replied.

"She is a very singular young woman," she continued; "we think her
stupid. We cannot make anything of her. But there is no doubt poor
Tardif means to marry her."

"Nonsense!" I ejaculated, hotly; "I beg your pardon, Maria, but I give
Tardif credit for sense enough to know his own position."

"So did we," said Emma, "but it looks odd. He married an Englishwoman
before. It's old Mere Renouf who says he worships the ground she treads
upon. You know he holds a very good position in the island, and he is a
great favorite with the seigneur. There are dozens of girls of his own
class in Guernsey and Alderney, to say nothing of Sark, who would be
only too glad to have him. He