He looked hard at her through the darkness, which was less intense
now; for the moon was not far below the horizon. Her face looked
white, and he thought that she was breathing quickly. But they had
always been friends; he remembered that just in time.

"It is only natural that I should look forward, when we are at sea,
to coming back here--" He paused and kicked the turf-wall with his
heel, as if to remind her that she had sat in the same corner before
and he had leant against the same wall, talking to her. "They are
good fellows, of course, with a hundred fine qualities which I lack,
but they do not understand half that one may say, or think--even the
Captain. He is well educated, in his way, but it is only the way of
a coasting-captain who has risen by his merits to the command of a
foreign-going ship."

Miriam gave an impatient little sigh. He had veered again from the
point.

"You think that I forget that he is my relative," said Loo, sharply,
detecting in his quickness of thought a passing resentment. "I do
not. I never forget that. I am the son of his cousin. I know
that, and thus related to many in Farlingford. But I have never
called him cousin, and he has never asked me to."

"No," said Miriam, with averted eyes, in that other voice, which
made him turn and look at her, catching his breath.

"Oh!" he said, with a sudden laugh of comprehension. "You have
heard what, I suppose, is common talk in Farlingford. You know what