asked:

"Knowing all as you do, what do you advise?"

"By all means, go to London," answered Drummond.

"Ought I to leave my wife and children?"

"Wherefore not?"

"If I perish on the voyage, they will be wholly unprovided for."

"Your father was a sailor."

"But his son is not."

"Yet methinks the son should inherit some of the father's courage."

John Stevens' cheek reddened at the delicate insinuation against his
courage, and he responded:

"Have I not, on more than one hard-fought field, established my claim to
courage?"

"True, yet why shrink from this voyage?"

"A soothsayer once predicted that dire calamities would overcome me,
were I ever to venture upon the sea."

At this Cheeseman and Drummond laughed and even the thoughtful Mr.
Lawerence smiled. Though soothsayers in those days were not generally
gainsaid, those four men at Drummond's house lived in advance of
their age.

"Go on your voyage and save the sum in jeopardy," was Drummond's advice.

"If your going will make sure the sum, hesitate not a single moment,"
interposed Cheeseman.

"How much is involved?" asked the thoughtful Mr. Lawrerence.

"Eight hundred pounds."

"Quite a sum."

"Verily, it is. The amount would at this day relieve all my
embarrassments; yet, if I go, I leave nothing behind, for my property is
gone, and my family is unprovided for."

"Secure the eight hundred pounds and provide for them."

With this advices in mind, he went home, and that same evening Hugh
Price, the young royalist, who lived with Sir William Berkeley at
Greenspring, called to see him, and once more the voyage to London was
discussed.

"By all means, go," Hugh advised. "It is your duty to go."

Mrs. Stevens was consulted and thought she should go also; she saw no
reason in his taking a pleasure voyage and leaving his wife at home; but
this was out of the question, for the baby was too young to endure the
voyage; besides, the cost of taking her would more than double the
expense. Then Mrs. Stevens, who thought only of a pleasant time, wanted
to know why she could not be sent in his stead. He explained that it was
a matter of business which a woman could not perform; but Mrs. Stevens
became unreasonable, declaring:

"You wish to go to London and pass your time in gay society."

"I do not," he answered.

"Verily, you do. You tire already of your wife; you would seek another."

"Dorothe, I would wed no other woman living," answered John,