d give
him a good meal ere he starts."

"Your honor," said the sailor, "is a father and a brother to me. I shall
not forget."

"Do thy duty," said Sir Thurstan.

So I took the man to the kitchen, and fed him, and soon he went away.

"Young master," said he, "if I can ever repay this kindness I will, yea,
with interest. Pharaoh Nanjulian never forgets."

With that he went away, and we saw him no more.

CHAPTER III.

ROSE.

There being no disposition on my part to renew our differences, and none
on his to lead up to an open rupture, my cousin Jasper Stapleton and I
got on together very well, until we had reached the age of nineteen
years, when a new and far more important matter of contention arose
between us.

Now, our first quarrel had arisen over the ultimate disposition of my
uncle's estates; our second was as to which should be lord over the
heart and hand of a fair maiden. To both of us the second quarrel was
far more serious than the first--which is a thing that will readily be
understood by all young folks. It seemed to both of us that not all the
broad acres of Beechcot, nay, of Yorkshire itself, were to be reckoned
in comparison with the little hand of Mistress Rose Herrick.

For by that time Mistress Rose had grown to be a fair and gracious
maiden, whose golden hair, floating from under her dainty cap, was a
dangerous snare for any hot-hearted lad's thoughts to fall entangled in.
So sweet and gracious was she, so delightful her conversation, so
bewitching her eyes, that I marvel not even at this stretch of time that
I then became her captive and slave for life. Nor do I marvel, either,
that Jasper Stapleton was equally enslaved by her charms. It had indeed
been wonderful if he or I had made any resistance to them.

As to myself, the little blind god pierced my heart with his arrow at a
very early stage. Indeed, I do not remember any period of my life when I
did not love Rose Herrick more dearly than anything else in God's fair
world. To me she was all that is sweet and desirable, a companion whose
company must needs make the path of life a primrose path; and,
therefore, even when I was a lad, I looked forward to the time when I
might take her hand in mine, and enter with her upon the highway which
all of us must travel.

However, when I was come to nineteen years of age, being then a tall and
strapping lad, and somewhat grave withal, it came to my mind that I
should find out for myself w