while Kitty kept both her hands before her tearful face, to shut out the
traitor from her view,--but kept her fingers wide asunder and looked at
him all the time,--"Margaret, you have suffered so much, so
uncomplainingly, and are always so careful and considerate! Do take my
part, for poor Hugh's sake!"

The quiet Margaret was not appealed to in vain. "I will, Alfred," she
returned, "and I do. I wish this gentleman had never come near us;"
whereupon the captain laid hold of himself the tighter; "but I take your
part for all that. I am sure you have some strong reason and some
sufficient reason for what you do, strange as it is, and even for not
saying why you do it, strange as that is. And, Kitty darling, you are
bound to think so more than any one, for true love believes everything,
and bears everything, and trusts everything. And, mother dear, you are
bound to think so too, for you know you have been blest with good sons,
whose word was always as good as their oath, and who were brought up in
as true a sense of honour as any gentleman in this land. And I am sure
you have no more call, mother, to doubt your living son than to doubt
your dead son; and for the sake of the dear dead, I stand up for the dear
living."

"Wa'al now," the captain struck in, with enthusiasm, "this I say, That
whether your opinions flatter me or not, you are a young woman of sense,
and spirit, and feeling; and I'd sooner have you by my side in the hour
of danger, than a good half of the men I've ever fallen in with--or
fallen out with, ayther."

Margaret did not return the captain's compliment, or appear fully to
reciprocate his good opinion, but she applied herself to the consolation
of Kitty, and of Kitty's mother-in-law that was to have been next Monday