l at
Sandyseal.

The landlord's reply a little surprised him.

Some days since, the yacht had again appeared in the bay. Captain
Bennydeck had landed, to all appearance in fairly good health; and had
left by an early train for London. The sailing-master announced that
he had orders to take the vessel back to her port--with no other
explanation than that the cruise was over. This alternative in the
Captain's plans (terminating the voyage a month earlier than his
arrangements had contemplated) puzzled Randal. He called at his friend's
private residence, only to hear from the servants that they had seen
nothing of their master. Randal waited a while in London, on the chance
that Bennydeck might pay him a visit.

During this interval his patience was rewarded in an unexpected manner.
He discovered the Captain's address by means of a letter from Catherine,
dated "Buck's Hotel, Sydenham." Having gently reproached him for not
writing to her or calling on her, she invited him to dinner at the
hotel. Her letter concluded in these words: "You will only meet one
person besides ourselves--your friend, and (since we last met) our
friend too. Captain Bennydeck has got tired of the sea. He is staying at
this hotel, to try the air of Sydenham, and he finds that it agrees with
him."

These lines set Randal thinking seriously.

To represent Bennydeck as being "tired of the sea," and as being willing
to try, in place of the breezy Channel, the air of a suburb of London,
was to make excuses too perfectly futile and absurd to deceive any one
who knew the Captain. In spite of the appearance of innocence which
pervaded Catherine's letter, the true motive for breaking off his cruise
might be found, as Randal concluded, in Catherine herself. Her residence
at the sea-side, helped by the lapse of time, had restored to her
personal attractions almost all they had lost under the deteriorating
influences of care and grief; and her change of name must have protected
her from a discovery of the Divorce which would have shocked a man so
sincerely religious as Bennydeck. Had her beauty fascinated him? Was
she aware of the interest that he felt in her? and was it secretly
understood and returned? Randal wrote to accept the invitation;
determining to present himself before the appointed hour, and to
question Catherine privately, without giving her the advantage over him
of preparing herself for the interview.

In the short time that passed before