Though slow of tongue, the men of Farlingford were of hospitable
inclination. They were sorry for Frenchmen, as for a race destined
to smart for all time under the recollection of many disastrous
defeats at sea. And of course they could not help being ridiculous.
Heaven had made them like that while depriving them of any hope of
ever attaining to good seamanship. Here was a foreigner, however,
cast up in their midst, not by the usual channel indeed, but by a
carriage and pair from Ipswich. He must feel lonesome, they
thought, and strange. They, therefore, made an effort to set him at
his ease, and when they met him in "the street" jerked their heads
at him sideways. The upward jerk is less friendly and usually
denotes the desire to keep strictly within the limits of
acquaintanceship. To Mr. Dormer Colville they gave the upward lift
of the chin as to a person too facile in speech to be desirable.

The dumbness of the Marquis de Gemosac appealed perhaps to a race of
seafaring men very sparingly provided by nature with words in which
to clothe thoughts no less solid and sensible by reason of their
terseness. It was at all events unanimously decided that everything
should be done to make the foreigner welcome until the arrival of
"The Last Hope." A similar unanimity characterised the decision
that he must without delay be shown Frenchman's grave.

River Andrew's action and the unprecedented display of his Sunday
hat on a week-day were nothing but the outcome of a deep-laid
scheme. Mrs. Clopton had been instructed to recommend the gentlemen
to inspect the church, and the rest had been left to the wit of
River Andrew, a man whose calling took him far and wide, and gave
him opportunities of speech with gentlefolk.