ing; and he
now tore off a part of the second leaf, and gave it to her. "I have only
lately," he said, "received the address from a friend."

As he offered that explanation, the shrill sound of a child's voice,
raised in anger and entreaty, reached their ears from the neighborhood
of the hotel. Faithful little Kitty had made her escape, determined to
return to Sydney had been overtaken by the maid--and had been carried
back in Susan's arms to the house. Sydney imagined that she was not
perhaps alone in recognizing the voice. The stranger who had been so
kind to her did certainly start and look round.

The stillness of the night was disturbed no more. The man turned again
to the person who had so strongly interested him. The person was gone.

In fear of being followed, Sydney hurried to the railway station. By the
light in the carriage she looked for the first time at the fragment of
the letter and the card.

The stranger had presented her with her own address! And, when she
looked at the card, the name was Bennydeck!

Chapter XLVII. Better Do It Than Wish It Done.

More than once, on one and the same day, the Captain had been guilty
of a weakness which would have taken his oldest friends by surprise, if
they had seen him at the moment. He hesitated.

A man who has commanded ships and has risked his life in the regions of
the frozen deep, is a man formed by nature and taught by habit to meet
emergency face to face, to see his course straight before him, and to
take it, lead him where it may. But nature and habit, formidable forces
as they are, find their master when they encounter the passion of Love.

At once perplexed and distressed by that startling change in Catherine
which he had observed when her child approached her, Bennydeck's
customary firmness failed him, when the course of conduct toward his
betrothed wife which it might be most becoming to follow presented
itself to him as a problem to be solved. When Kitty asked him to
accompany her nursemaid and herself on their return to the hotel, he
had refused because he felt reluctant to intrude himself on Catherine's
notice, until she was ready to admit him to her confidence of her own
free will. Left alone, he began to doubt whether delicacy did really
require him to make the sacrifice which he had contemplated not five
minutes since. It was surely possible that Catherine might be waiting
to see him, and might then offer the explanation which would p