'If he was worth dying for. Must he be lovely?' said Captain Jackman, pushing his chair from the table and nursing his knee, and regarding her with obstinate pleasure, for he not only found her a handsome woman; she had saved his life at the risk of her own. 'I had thought,' continued the girl, from the interest you take in these caves, and by your accent, which is slightly American----' 'Ho!' cried the captain, 'that's news to me.' 'That you were going to fit out your brig with some romantic reference to these holes in the rocks. Strange ideas enter one's head.' 'They do indeed, madam.' They rose from the table. The captain, turning to the commander, said, putting all the graceful bows and courtesy of that age into his demeanour-- 'Will you, commander, and Miss Conway, give me the pleasure, the real pleasure--of your company at dinner at the "Faithful Heart"? Say six o'clock.' The commander seemed to pause. The girl's eyes burnt upon him. He began a little awkwardly-- 'As strangers, sir, we really have no claim.' 'Do not speak of me as a stranger, I beg,' said the captain. The commander looked at his daughter, saw a quarrel in her fine eyes, sulkiness running into days, much discomfort to an elderly widower living with an only child, and so he whipped out-- 'Be it so, captain. We will be with you at six o'clock.' Shortly after this, Captain Jackman left the pretty little house, having stood a few minutes by Miss Conway's side, greatly admiring the spacious view from the lawn. The commander walked to the side of his daughter, who remained on the lawn, watching the departing figure of Captain Jackman. 'What do you think of him, father?' said she, laying her hand upon his square shoulder. 'Think! He is no introduction of yours that we should _think_,' cried the little seaman. 'You know him through me, and cannot but have thoughts about him, good or bad,' she exclaimed, with an irritable toss of her head, dropping her hand. 'Well, betwixt you and me,' said the commander, turning to take a view of his house, 'I don't like him.' 'Oh, I knew it would be so!' she exclaimed. 'He is much too handsome. Had I appeared in the company of an old man of sixty, with a brown wig down his back, and a yellow nose down his face, you would have found him a welcome presence.' The commander did not readily lose his temper. 'I do not like this man because I do not like his manner of losing fifteen hundred pounds--the property of others. It is strange. It is peculiar. It is memorable. And I recollected it, as you may have observed, when we were seated.' 'Was it good taste?' said the girl, slightly sneering. 'Oh, we don't live in these parts to cultivate what you call taste! We speak the truth--or should.' 'What do you want to imply, father?' The commander looked at the ocean and grinned. 'You mean to say,' continued the girl, 'that Captain Jackman knocked himself down and robbed his owners of fifteen hundred pounds?'