"Mind your steering or we shall all be in the water," the old lady cut her short. "Now, Mr. Chermside, be explicit, please. Why are you unworthy to marry my niece?" "Because," replied Leslie, who had expected the question. "I consented, under stress of peculiar circumstances, to aid and abet a base conspiracy for doing a great injury to an innocent person. It is true that I repented and left my tempters in the lurch, but I cannot hold myself white-washed on that account." Miss Sarah Dymmock, not having a barrister's gown to hitch up, adjusted her mushroom hat before returning to the charge. "Has this piece of villainy you set out to do since been accomplished by the people who tried to mislead you?" she demanded. "It has not," rejoined Leslie firmly. "And please God it never will. They have not, I believe, abandoned it; but I am devoting such feeble powers as I possess to thwarting them. I claim no leniency on that score. I tell you, Miss Dymmock, as I have told Violet, that the thing was a horrible thing, and that no decent woman ought to be joined to a man who, even in a mad lapse born of unspeakable misery, could have become a consenting party to it for a single minute." Aunt Sarah nodded sagely once or twice, and let her keen old eyes rest for a while on the red cliffs past which the boat was gliding. "Reverting to the question of means," she resumed at length, "if you went to that greedy nephew of mine--not a bad sort, but a money-grubber--you would have to confess that you had no steam yacht to your name, or any of the other trimmings with which the Ottermouth wiseacres have credited you?" "I should have to confess that I haven't a blessed stiver," said Leslie grimly. Aunt Sarah's stern features relaxed, and her smile could be very charming when she chose. "In that case, Mr. Chermside," she said, "you would be adding the sin of falsehood to your other real or imaginary iniquities. I yesterday arranged the preliminaries of a transfer to you of securities worth, roughly speaking, two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. I had an inkling that you were an attractive but quite harmless fraud, and as the present interview has confirmed that belief I shall wire my brokers to complete the transfer. I was aware that my dear girl's happiness was bound up in your ability to satisfy her father of your good faith, and I decided to place you in a position to do so. There is no need to thank me. It is only a little juggle with money for which an old woman has no use. In any case it would have been Violet's when I die." "And you suggested a sail in order to tell us this?" Violet gasped. "Yes; you see it is really a sort of plot in which we three must remain the only conspirators," the old lady beamed at the fair young face flushed with joy. "A boat seemed the safest place for such business." "You dear!" was all Violet could answer as she strove to keep back the happy tears.