"No, no, sight the coast, Caudel, and give us a view of the scenery.
And now, whilst I have the chance, let me thank you heartily for the
service you have done me to-night. I should have been helpless without
you; and what other man of my crew--what other man of any sort, indeed,
could I have depended upon?"
"Oh, dorn't mention it, Mr. Barclay, sir; I beg and entreat that you
worn't mention it, sir," he replied, as though affected by my
condescension. "You're a gentleman, sir, begging your pardon, and that
means a man of honour, and when you told me how things stood, why,
putting all dooty on one side, if so be as there can be such a thing as
dooty in jobs which aren't shipshape and proper, why, I says, of
course, I was willing to be of use. Not that I myself have much
confidence in these here elopements, saving your presence. I've got a
grown-up darter myself in sarvice, and if when she gets married she
dorn't make a straight course for the meeting-house, why, then, I shall
have to talk to her as she's never yet been talked to. But in this
job"--he swung off from the tiller to expectorate over the rail--"what
the young lady's been and gone and done is what I should say to my
darter or any other young woman, the sarcumstances being the same, 'go
thou and dew likewise.'"
"You see, Caudel, there was no hope of getting her ladyship's consent."
"No, sir."
"Then, again, consider the cruelty of sending the young lady to a Roman
Catholic school for no fairer or kinder reasons than to remove her out
of my way, and to compel her, if possible, by ceaseless teasing and
exhortation, and God best knows what other devices, to change her
faith."
"I onderstand, sir, and I'm of opinion it was quite time that their
little game was stopped."
"Lady Amelia Roscoe is a Roman Catholic, and very bigoted. Ever since
she first took charge of Miss Bellassys she has been trying to convert
her, and by methods, I assure you, by no means uniformly kind."
"So you was asaying, sir."
It pleased me to be thus candid with this sailor. Possibly there was
in me a little disturbing sense of the need of justifying myself,
though I believe the most acidulated moralist could not have glanced
through the skylight without feeling that I heartily deserved
forgiveness.
"But supposing, Mr. Barclay, sir," continued Caudel, "that you'd ha'
changed your religion and become a Papist; would her ladyship still ha'
gone on objecting to ye?"
"Supposing! Yes, Caudel, she would have gone on objecting even then.
There are family feelings, family traditions, mixed up in her dislike
of me. You shall have the yarn before we go ashore. It is right that
you should know the whole truth. Until I make that young lady below my
wife, she is as much under your care as under mine. That was agreed on
between us, and that you know."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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