‘Captain Ladmore has asked me to say he is ready to see you, my dear,’ said she. ‘Will you go with Agnes, mother?’ said Alice. ‘But Captain Ladmore does not want to see _me_, my love,’ exclaimed her mother; then, looking from me to her daughter, the good little woman cried, ‘Oh, yes! I will go with you, Agnes. Give me your arm.’ CHAPTER XIII THE SHIP IS MY HOME The saloon was empty of passengers, and the stewards were occupied in clearing the long table. We walked to the door of the captain’s berth, knocked and entered. Captain Ladmore put down a pen with which he was writing in a book, and, rising, received us with a grave bow. ‘You are very good, Mrs. Lee,’ he exclaimed, ‘to take Miss C---- under your protection.’ He placed chairs for us. ‘I am happy to observe, Miss C----, that you have found kind friends in Mrs. Lee and her daughter.’ ‘They are kind, indeed, Captain Ladmore. How kind I have no words to tell you.’ ‘My reason for wishing to see you is this,’ said the captain. ‘Sir Frederick Thompson, a shrewd, keen-eyed man of business, whose opinion on any matter must carry weight, persists in declaring that you are a Calthorpe. Whether you are the Honourable Miss Calthorpe or Lady So-and-so Calthorpe he does not pretend to guess. He persists in holding that the likeness between you and Lady Lucy Calthorpe is too striking, altogether too extraordinary to be accidental, by which he would persuade us that you are a member of the family.’ He paused to give me an opportunity to speak. I had nothing to say. ‘I own,’ he continued, ‘that I am impressed by Sir Frederick’s conviction, for that is what it amounts to. On leaving the table just now I said to him, “I am about to see the lady on the subject. You have no doubt?” “I would venture five hundred pounds upon it,” said he. “Yet you only met Lady Lucy Calthorpe once; how can you remember her?” “I do remember her all the same,” said he, “your shipwrecked lady is a Calthorpe. Take my word for it!” Now, if Sir Frederick is right my duty is plain.’ ‘Sir Frederick is not right,’ said Mrs. Lee. The captain arched his brows. ‘Why, madam,’ said he, ‘if Miss C---- can tell you who she is not, she ought to be able to tell you who she is.’ ‘She has told me nothing,’ said Mrs. Lee; ‘it is my daughter’s common sense which settles Sir Frederick’s conjectures to my mind.’ The captain bent his ear. ‘Lift your veil, my dear,’ said Mrs. Lee. I did so. ‘Now, Captain Ladmore, look at this poor lady’s face. We are all agreed that her figure proves her to be a young woman. But her face is that of a middle-aged woman. And how has that come about? Some horrible adventure, some frightful experience, of which we know nothing, of which she, poor dear, knows nothing, has whitened her hair and cruelly thinned it, and seamed her face. And judge now how she has been wounded, and why it is that her memory has gone.’