I tried to look astonished, but broke down miserably. Do what I
would, my eyes seemed to be beyond my control; they would not meet
her steady gaze.

"Uncle Loveday is coming up later on. He's looking after the Cap--I
mean the sailor, and said he would run in afterwards."

"What is this sailor like?"

This question fairly broke me down. Between my dread of the Captain
and her pained astonishment, I could only sit stammering and longing
for the earth to gape and swallow me up. Suddenly a dreadful
suspicion struck my mother.

"Jasper! Jasper! it cannot be--you cannot mean--that it was _his_
ship?"

"No, mother, no! Father is all right. He said--I mean--it was not
his ship."

"Oh! thank God! But you are hiding something from me! What is it?
Jasper dear, what are you hiding?"

"Mother, I think it was the _Mary Jane_. But it was not father's
ship. Father's all right. And, mother, don't ask me any more; Uncle
Loveday will tell all about it. And--I'm not very well, mother. I
think--"

Want of sleep, indeed, and the excitement of the morning, had broken
me down. My mother stifled her desire to hear more, and tenderly saw