“Well, but ‘ladye faire,’ remember that I have earned some repose. I have not been altogether a carpet knight I have had my share of lance and spear, and amongst fellows who handle their weapons neatly.” “You are dying to get back to Ghoorkas and Sikhs, but I won’t have it I’d rather hear Metastasio or Petrarch, just now.” “What if I were to quote something apposite, though it were only prose--something out of the Promessi Sposi?” She made no answer, and turned away her head. “Put up your helm a little: let the sails draw freely. This is very enjoyable; it is a right royal luxury. I’m not sure Antony ever had his galley steered by Cleopatra; had he?” “I don’t know; but I do know that I am not Cleopatra nor you Antony.” “How readily you take one up for a foolish speech, as if these rambling indiscretions were not the soul of such converse as ours. They are like the squalls, that only serve to increase our speed and never risk our safety, and, somehow, I feel to-day as if my temper was all of that fitful and capricious kind. I suppose it is the over-happiness. Are you happy, Florry?” asked he, after a pause. “If you mean, do I enjoy this glorious day and our sail, yes, intensely. Now, what am I to do? The sail is flapping in spite of me.” “Because the wind has chopped round, and is coming from the eastward. Down your helm, and let her find her own way. We have the noble privilege of not caring whither. How she spins through it now.” “It is immensely exciting,” said she, and her colour heightened as she spoke. “Have you superstitions about dates?” he asked after another pause. “No; I don’t think so. My life has been so uneventful. Few days record anything memorable. But why did you ask?” “I am--I am a devout believer in lucky and unlucky days, and had I only bethought me this was a Friday, I’d have put off our sail till to-morrow.” “It is strange to see a man like you attach importance to these things.” “And yet it is exactly men like me who do so. Superstitions belong to hardy, stern, rugged races, like the northmen, even more than the’ natives of southern climes. Too haughty and too self-dependent to ask counsel from others like themselves, they seek advice in the occult signs and faint whispers of the natural world. Would you believe it, that I cast a horoscope last night to know if I should succeed in the next project I undertook?” “And what was the answer?” “An enigma to this purpose: that if what I undertook corresponded with the entrance of Orion into the seventh house--Why are you laughing?” “Is it not too absurd to hear such nonsense from you?” “Was it not the grotesque homage of the witch made Macbeth a murderer? What are you doing, child? Luff--luff up; the wind is freshening.” “I begin to think there should be a more skilful hand on the tiller. It blows freshly now.”