nswered gravely: "He snored."

Catherine was amused; Mrs. Presty burst out laughing; the Captain's dry
humor asserted itself as quaintly as ever. "This is no laughing matter,"
he resumed, looking at Catherine. "My vessel is a small one. For two
nights the awful music of my friend's nose kept me sleepless. When I
woke him, and said, 'Don't snore,' he apologized in the sweetest manner,
and began again. On the third day I anchored in the bay here, determined
to get a night's rest on shore. A dispute about the price of these
rooms offered them to me. I sent a note of apology on board--and slept
peacefully. The next morning, my sailing master informed me that there
had been what he called 'a little swell in the night.' He reported the
sounds made by my friend on this occasion to have been the awful sounds
of seasickness. 'The gentleman left the yacht, sir, the first thing this
morning,' he said; 'and he's gone home by railway.' On the day when you
happened to arrive, my cabin was my own again; and I can honestly thank
you for relieving me of my rooms. Do you make a long stay, Mrs. Norman?"

Catherine answered that they were going to London by the next train.
Seeing Randal's card still unnoticed on the table, she handed it to the
Captain.

"Is Mr. Linley an old friend of yours?" he asked, as he took the card.

Mrs. Presty hastened to answer in the affirmative for her daughter. It
was plain that Randal had discreetly abstained from mentioning his true
connection with them. Would he preserve the same silence if the Captain
spoke of his visit to Mrs. Norman, when he and his friend met next? Mrs.
Presty's mind might have been at ease on that subject, if she had known
how to appreciate Randal's character and Randal's motives. The same keen
sense of the family disgrace, which had led him to conceal from Captain
Bennydeck his brother's illicit relations with Sydney Westerfield, had
compelled him to keep secret his former association, as brother-in-law,
with the divorced wife. Her change of name had hitherto protected her
from discovery by the Captain, and would in all probability continue to
protect her in the future. The good Bennydeck had been enjoying himself
at sea when the Divorce was granted, and when the newspapers reported
the proceedings. He rarely went to his club, and he never associated
with persons of either sex to whom gossip and scandal are as the breath
of their lives. Ignorant of these circumstances, and rememberi