But unfortunately he was too late. The brig had completed the evolution, and the name on her stern was no longer visible, so the verification of her identity which Segoffin contemplated had become impossible. "So the devil may have me and welcome, may he?" responded Suzanne, tartly. "You are very polite, I must say." "Frankness is a duty between old friends like ourselves," said Segoffin, casting a regretful glance seaward. "I came here to amuse myself by watching the passing ships, and you had to come and interrupt me." "You are right; frankness is a duty between us, Segoffin, so I may as well tell you, here and now, that no stone-deaf person was ever harder to wake than you." "How do you know? Unfortunately for me and for you, Suzanne, you have never had a chance to see how I sleep," responded the head gunner, with a roguish smile. "You are very much mistaken, for I rapped at your door last night." "Ah!" exclaimed Segoffin, winking his only remaining eye with a triumphant air, "I have often told you that you would come to it sooner or later, and you have." "Come to what?" inquired the housekeeper, without the slightest suspicion of her companion's real meaning. "To stealing alone and on tiptoe to my room to--" "You are an abominably impertinent creature, M. Segoffin. I rapped at your door to ask your aid and protection." "Against whom?" "But you are such a coward that you just lay there pretending to be asleep and taking good care not to answer me." "Tell me seriously, Suzanne,--what occurred last night? Did you really think you needed me?" "Hear that, will you! They might have set fire to the house and murdered us, it wouldn't have made the slightest difference to you. M. Segoffin was snug in bed and there he remained." "Set fire to the house and murdered you! What on earth do you mean?" "I mean that two men tried to break into this house last night." "They were two of your lovers, doubtless." "Segoffin!" "You had probably made a mistake in the date--" But the head gunner never finished the unseemly jest. His usually impassive features suddenly assumed an expression of profound astonishment, succeeded by one of fear and anxiety. The change, in fact, was so sudden and so striking that Dame Roberts, forgetting her companion's impertinent remarks, exclaimed: "Good Heavens, Segoffin, what is the matter with you? What are you looking at in that way?"