‘No!’ shouted Wilfrid, fetching the table a whack with his fist: ‘so say no more about it, Charles. Strange that _you_, who should possess the subtlest and strongest of any kind of human sympathy for and with me--I mean the sympathy of blood--should so absolutely fail to appreciate my determination and to accept my purpose! That girl there,’ pointing with his long arm to Miss Laura, ‘can read my heart and, of her sweetness, justify and approve all she finds there. But _you_, my dear Charles’--he softened his voice though he continued speaking with warmth nevertheless--‘_you_, my own first cousin, _you_ to whom my honour should be hardly less dear than your own--_you_ would have me abandon this pursuit--forego every detail of my carefully prepared programme--blink with a cynical laziness at my own and my infant’s degradation and turn to the law--to the law forsooth!--for the appeasement or extinction of every just yearning and of every consuming desire of my manhood. No, by G--!’ he roared, ‘fate may be against me, but even _her_ iron hand can be forced by a heart goaded as mine has been and is.’ He rose from the table and without another word went to his cabin. We had been for some time alone--I mean that Muffin and the stewards had left us. When my cousin was gone I looked at Miss Jennings. ‘Forgive me, Mr. Monson,’ she exclaimed with a little blush and speaking with an enchanting diffidence, ‘but I fear--indeed I am sure, that any, even the lightest, suggestion that runs counter to Wilfrid’s wishes irritates him. And,’ she added almost in a whisper, ‘I think it is dangerous to irritate him.’ ‘I have no wish to irritate him, believe me, Miss Jennings,’ said I. ‘I desire to be of some practical help, and my recommendations have no other motive. But I give you my word if this sort of thing goes on I shall grow selfish, nay, alarmed if you like. I certainly never anticipated these melodramatic displays, these tragic rebukes, when I accepted his offer of the voyage. Pray consider: if Wilf, poor fellow, should grow worse, if his actions should result in exhibiting him as irresponsible, what’s to be done? Heaven forbid that I should say a word to alarm you--’ she shook her head with a smile: I was a little abashed but proceeded nevertheless--‘we are not upon dry land here. The ocean is as full of the unexpected as it is of fish. Finn is a plain steady man with brains enough, but then he is not in command in the sense that a captain is in command when we speak of a ship whose skipper is lord paramount. He will obey as Wilfrid orders, and I say, Miss Jennings, with all submission to your engaging, to your beautiful desires as a sister, that if Wilfrid’s humour is going to gain on him at the rate at which I seem to find it growing, it will be my business, as I am certain it will be my duty for everybody’s sake as well as for yours and his own, so to contrive this unparalleled pursuit as to end it swiftly.’