‘But why allow a fancy to worry you, Wilfrid?’ said I. ‘I fear it is no fancy,’ he answered quickly. ‘I told Miss Jennings,’ said I, ‘that you have been vexed and upset by what you interpreted into a warning.’ ‘Did it particularly refer to baby?’ she asked. ‘Wholly,’ he responded gloomily. ‘But confound it all, Wilfrid,’ cried I somewhat impatiently, ‘won’t you put this miserable vision into words? What form did it take? A warning! If you choose to view things asquint they’re full of warnings. Consider the superstitions which flourish; the signs of luck and of ill-luck; the meaning of the stumble on the threshold, the capsized salt-cellar, and the rest of the inventions of the wicked old hags who ride a cock-horse on broomsticks. Why,’ I cried, talking vehemently with the idea of breaking through the thickness upon his mind, though it was no better than elbowing a fog, ‘I protest, Wilfrid, I would rather swing at your lower-yardarm and be cut down after a reasonable time to plomb the deep peace of the green silence beneath our keel, than live in a torment of apprehension of shadows, and convert life into a huge mustard poultice to adjust to my quivering anatomy staggering onwards to the grave!’ He surveyed me with a lack-lustre eye whilst he listened. ‘Might not this warning, as you call it, Wilfrid,’ said Miss Jennings, ‘have been some brief, vivid dream, the impression of which was keen enough, when you awoke, to make you imagine you had viewed what had appeared with open eyes?’ ‘No!’ he answered emphatically, ‘what I saw I saw as I see you.’ ‘Then it wasn’t a voice?’ I exclaimed. ‘No matter,’ he said, ‘God’s eye is upon the innocent. Surely he will protect my little one. Still--still--’ he seemed to struggle with some thought and paused. I made up my mind to attempt a bold stroke. ‘Wilf,’ said I, ‘your child must be dearer to you than your wife. Since you are uneasy about the bairn why not abandon a pursuit which, I give you my word, seems to me about as aimless as a chase after the flying shadow of a cloud, and shift your helm for home, where you will be able to have the child by your side and where there will be no need for warnings relating to her to worry you?’ A dangerous light came into his eyes; his strangely cut nostrils enlarged and trembled, half a dozen dark moods went like ripples of shadow over his face. I regarded him steadfastly, but I will own not without a good deal of anxiety, for his bearing at this moment had more of the madman in it than I had ever before witnessed. He breathed deep several times before speaking.