The girl, who showed her youth and inexperience in many little ways, regarded him with admiration unconcealed. Certainly, he was a personable young man, even picturesque; when his beard should be a little longer, when his moustache should be a little stronger, he might be able to pass for Charles I. idealised, and in early manhood, when as yet he had not begun to dissimulate. 'I was so glad when you promised to stay,' she replied, truthfully. 'Again, it is most good of you to say so. But, Armorel, a dreadful misgiving has possessed me. Does your--does the Ancestress approve of the invitation?' Armorel laughed. 'Why,' she said, 'we never consult her about anything. She is too old, you know.' 'Was nobody consulted at all? Did you ask me here all out of your own head, as the children say?' 'Why not? There is nobody to consult. Why should I not ask you?' 'It was very good of you--only--well--you are younger than most ladies who invite people to their house.' 'Well--but I asked you,' she replied, with a little irritation, 'and you said you would come. You asked if anybody could stay on the island.' 'Yes, of course.' He did not explain that at first he thought the place was a lodging-house. The mistake was not unnatural; but he could not explain. 'I ought to have known,' he said. 'You are the Queen of Samson, as well as a Princess in Lyonesse. I beg your Majesty to forgive the ignorance of a traveller from foreign parts.' 'Justinian and Peter manage the farm. Dorcas and Chessun manage the house. There is no one to ask,' she added, simply, 'what I am doing.' She said this with a touch of sadness. 'Have you no relations--cousins--nobody?' 'I have some far-off cousins. They live in London, I believe. One of them went away--a long, long time ago, in the Great War--and became a purser in the Navy. After that he was purveyor for the Fleet, and was made a knight. He was my grandfather's cousin, so I suppose he is dead by this time, but I dare say he has left children.' 'You are very lonely, Armorel.' 'I had three brothers; but they were all drowned--father, mother, three brothers, all drowned together coming from St. Agnes. That was ten years ago, when I was only a little girl and did not know what it meant. All our misfortunes, my great-great-grandmother says, are due to the wickedness of her husband's father, who took a bag of treasure from the neck of a passenger rescued from a wreck. You heard her last night. Do you think that God would drown my innocent brothers and my innocent father and mother all on the same day, because, eighty years ago, that wicked thing was done?' 'No, Armorel. I can believe a great deal, but that I cannot believe.' 'And so, you see, I am quite alone. Why should I not invite you to stay here?' 'There is not, in reality, Armorel, any reason, except that you did not know anything about me.' 'Oh! but I saw you and talked with you.'