my agent yet, and
therefore do not know whether he still sends them the allowance I made
them."

After leaving the lawyer he went to his agent and found that the allowance
was still paid, and regularly acknowledged by a receipt from the
clergyman. He supposed, therefore, that certainly one, if not both, of the
old people were still alive. He went back to Dulwich and said that he had
taken a seat on the north coach for that day week. "I could not bring
myself to leave before," he said, "and I knew you would keep me."

"Certainly, my boy. I don't think either Alice or myself would forgive you
were you to run away the moment you returned."

When the time came Will started for the north, though he felt much
reluctance to leave Alice. He acknowledged now to himself that he was
deeply in love with her. Though from her father's manner he felt that when
he asked for her hand he would not be refused, about Alice herself he felt
far less confident. She was so perfectly open and natural with him that he
feared lest she might regard him rather as a brother than as a lover, and
yet the blush which he had noticed when he first met her on his return
gave him considerable hope.

On arriving at Scarborough he stopped for the night at the house of his
old friend Mrs. Archer. She and her husband listened with surprise and
pleasure to his stories of his adventures in spite of his assurances that
these were very ordinary matters, and that it was chiefly by luck that he
had got on. He was a little surprised when, in reply to this, Mrs. Archer
used the very words Mr. Palethorpe had uttered. "It is of no use your
talking in that way, Will," she said. "No doubt you have had very good
fortune, but your rapid promotion can only be due to your conduct and
courage."

"I may have conducted myself well," he said warmly, "but not one bit
better than other officers in the service. I really owe my success to the
fortunate suggestion of mine as to the best method of attacking that
pirate hold. As a reward for this the admiral gave me the command of
_L'Agile_, and so, piece by piece, it has grown. But it was to my good
fortune in making that suggestion, which really was not made in earnest,
but only in reply to the challenge of another midshipman, that it has all
come about. Above all, Mrs. Archer, I shall never forget that it was the
kindness you showed me, and the pains you took in my education, that gave
me my start in life."

The next day he d