e had sat in the same corner before and he had
leant against the same wall, talking to her. "They are good fellows,
of course, with a hundred fine qualities which I lack, but they do not
understand half that one may say, or think--even the Captain. He is well
educated, in his way, but it is only the way of a coasting-captain who
has risen by his merits to the command of a foreign-going ship."

Miriam gave an impatient little sigh. He had veered again from the
point.

"You think that I forget that he is my relative," said Loo, sharply,
detecting in his quickness of thought a passing resentment. "I do not.
I never forget that. I am the son of his cousin. I know that, and thus
related to many in Farlingford. But I have never called him cousin, and
he has never asked me to."

"No," said Miriam, with averted eyes, in that other voice, which made
him turn and look at her, catching his breath.

"Oh!" he said, with a sudden laugh of comprehension. "You have heard
what, I suppose, is common talk in Farlingford. You know what has
brought these people here--this Monsieur de Gemosac, and the other--what
is his name? Dormer Colville. You have heard of my magnificent
possibilities. And I--I had forgotten all about them."

He threw out his arms in a gesture of gay contempt; for even in the
dark he could not refrain from adding to the meaning of mere words a
hundred-fold by the help of his lean hands and mobile face.

"I have heard of it, of course," she admitted, "from several people. But
I have heard most from Captain Clubbe. He takes it more seriously than
you do. You do not know, because he is one of those men who are most
silent with those to whom they are most attached. He thinks that it is
providential that my uncle should have had the desire to educate you,
and that you should have displayed such capacity to learn."

"Capacity?" he protested--"say genius! Do not let us do things by
halves. Genius to learn--yes; go on."

"Ah! you may laugh," Miriam said, lightly, "but it is serious enough.
You will find circumstances too strong for you. You will have to go to
France to claim your--heritage."

"Not I, if it means leaving Farlingford for ever and going to live among
strange people, like the Marquis de Gemosac, for instance, who gives
me the impression of a thousand petty ceremonies and a million futile
memories."

He turned and lifted his face to the breeze which blew from the sea over
flat stretches of sand and seawee