nly clutching the twisted wire
shroud. "I would like to see you turn pirate; it would be so
picturesque--you and Mr. Barker." The others laughed, not at the idea of
Claudius sporting the black flag--for he looked gloomy enough to do
murder in the first degree this morning--but the picture of the
exquisite and comfort-loving Mr. Barker, with his patent-leather shoes
and his elaborate travelling apparatus, leading a band of black-browed
ruffians to desperate deeds of daring and blood, was novel enough to be
exhilarating; and they laughed loudly. They did not understand Mr.
Barker; but perhaps Miss Skeat, who liked him with an old-maidenly
liking, had some instinct notion that the gentle American could be
dangerous.

"Mr. Barker would never do for a pirate," laughed Lady Victoria; "he
would be always getting his feet wet and having attacks of neuralgia."

"Take care, Vick," said her brother, "he might hear you."

"Well, if he did? I only said he would get his feet wet. There is no
harm in that, and it is clear he has neuralgia, because he says it
himself."

"Well, of course," said the Duke, "if that is what you mean. But he will
wet his feet fast enough when there is any good reason."

"If you make it 'worth his while,' of course," said Lady Victoria, "I
have no doubt of it." She turned up her nose, for she was not very fond
of Mr. Barker, and she thought poorly of the Duke's financial
enterprises in America. It was not a bit like a good old English
gentleman to be always buying and selling mines and stocks and all sorts
of things with queer names.

"Look here, Vick, we won't talk any more about Barker, if you please."

"Very well, then you can talk about the weather," said she.

"Yes," said Claudius, "you may well do that. There is a good deal of
weather to talk about."

"Oh, I like a storm at sea, of all things!" exclaimed Lady Victoria,
forgetting all about Mr. Barker in the delicious sense of saltness and
freedom one feels on the deck of a good ship running through a lively
sea. She put out her face to catch the fine salt spray on her cheek.
Just then a little water broke over the side abaft the gangway, and the
vessel rose and fell to the sweep of a big wave. The water ran along
over the flush deck, as if hunting for the scuppers, and came swashing
down to the lee where the party were standing, wetting the ladies' feet
to the ankle. The men merely pulled themselves up by the ropes they
held, and hung till t