"Always walk, in any weather. It is much less trouble and much cheaper. Besides, I like it." "The best of all reasons. Then you will not have any tea? I almost wish you would, because I want some myself." "Oh of course--in that case I shall be delighted. Shall I ring?" He rang and Martha brought the tea. Some time was consumed in the preparations which Mr. Juxon watched with interest as though he had never seen tea made before. Everything that Mrs. Goddard did interested him. "I do not know why it is," she said at last, "but weather like this is delightful when one is safe at home. I suppose it is the contrast--" "Yes indeed. It is like the watch below in dirty-weather." "Excuse me--I don't quite understand--" "At sea," explained the squire. "There is no luxury like being below when the decks are wet and there is heavy weather about." "I should think so," said Mrs. Goddard. "Have you been at sea much, Mr. Juxon?" "Thirty years," returned the squire laconically. Mrs. Goddard looked at him in astonishment. "You don't mean to say you have been a sailor all your life?" "Does that surprise you? I have been a sailor since I was twelve years old. But I got very tired of it. It is a hard life." "Were you in the navy, Mr. Juxon?" asked Mrs. Goddard eagerly, feeling that she was at last upon the track of some information in regard to his past life. "Yes--I was in the navy," answered the squire, slowly. "And then I was at college, and then in the navy again. At last I entered the merchant service and commanded my own ships for nearly twenty years." "How very extraordinary! Why then, you must have been everywhere." "Very nearly. But I would much rather be in Billingsfield." "You never told me," said Mrs. Goddard almost reproachfully. "What a change it must have been for you, from the sea to the life of a country gentleman!" "It is what I always wanted." "But you do not seem at all like the sea captains one hears about--" "Well, perhaps not," replied the squire thoughtfully. "There are a great many different classes of sea captains. I always had a taste for books. A man can read a great deal on a long voyage. I have sometimes been at sea for more than two years at a time. Besides, I had a fairly good education and--well, I suppose it was because I was a gentleman to begin with and was more than ten years in the Royal Navy. All that makes a great difference. Have you ever made a long voyage, Mrs. Goddard?" "I have crossed the channel," said she. "But I wish you would tell me something more about your life." "Oh no--it is very dull, all that. You always make me talk about myself," said the squire in a tone of protestation. "It is very interesting." "But--could we not vary the conversation by talking about you a little?" suggested Mr. Juxon.