Sir Frederick struck the palm of his hand with his clenched fist, and his little eyes shone triumphantly as he said: ‘I’d like to make a bet, captain, that you’ve had the honour of preserving the life of a Calthorpe. Such a likeness as I see is only to be found in families.’ ‘The accident of the lady being on board the French brig is accounted for,’ said the captain, eyeing me thoughtfully and earnestly; ‘she was rescued out of an open boat. But where did that boat come from?’ ‘Would not Miss C----’s handkerchief, the handkerchief you spoke of, Captain Ladmore, that has her initials, would it not be marked with something more than plain initials if she had rank?’ said Mrs. Lee. ‘I cannot tell,’ answered Captain Ladmore. ‘What should a simple sea captain know of such things?’ ‘The haristocracy,’ said Sir Frederick, ‘mark their linen all ways. I’m hable to speak with authority. At a Mansion ’Ouse ball a friend picked up an ’andkerchief, a beautiful lace ’andkerchief, and brought it to my poor wife. The word “Fanny” was worked in the corner and that was my wife’s name, and he thought the ’andkerchief was ’ers. But it didn’t belong to ’er at all. It was the property of Lady ---- whose ’usband ’ad been raised to the peerage in the preceding year. There was no coronet on that ’andkerchief.’ Observing that I was expected to speak, I exclaimed: ‘The names Sir Frederick mentions suggest nothing to me.’ ‘Well, all that I can say is,’ exclaimed Sir Frederick, ‘that the likeness is absolutely startling.’ He again lifted his little white wideawake, and, crossing the deck, joined a group of passengers with whom he entered into conversation. ‘There is nothing for it but to wait,’ said Captain Ladmore. ‘If your name were Calthorpe,’ said Mrs. Lee, ‘surely the utterance of it would excite some sensations, however weak, in your mind.’ ‘One should say so,’ remarked the captain. ‘I fear,’ said I, with much agitation, ‘that if I were to see my name fully written I should not know it. And yet it is strange!’ ‘What is strange?’ asked Mrs. Lee. ‘You will not think me vain for repeating it. There can be no vanity in a poor miserable outcast such as I. But I remember that one of the people of the French brig, the young man Alphonse, who had been a waiter, and who had attended upon a great many English people--I remember him once saying he was persuaded that I was a woman of title, or, if not a lady of title, that I belonged to the English aristocracy. I cannot imagine why he should have thought so.’ ‘Well,’ said the captain, smiling at Mrs. Lee, ‘it may be that we have preserved the life of the daughter of an Earl, or better still of a Duke. Anything higher we must not hope for. But enough for the present, at all events, that Miss C---- should be a fellow-creature in distress;’ and with a bow that seemed to have gained something in respectfulness, but nothing in kindness, he walked away.