"Very sorry, sir, indeed," he began, with a curiously uneasy and hang-dog expression. "The gear's broke down again--in another place. Couldn't possibly have been foreseen, sir. We can--hem--manage to beat about without any trouble, but I fear it would not be safe to try to push on to New York." "To New York!" said Mary Carstairs, looking at Varney and laughing at the man's stupidity. "It certainly would not be safe at all!" Even the furtive-glancing sailing-master was conscious of the tide of gladness that had broken into his young master's eyes. "_Put about this instant, man_!" he cried imperiously. "Miss Carstairs wishes to return to Hunston as soon as possible." "Right, sir," stammered the astonished Ferguson, backing away. "At once, sir." Varney met the man's amazement steadily, laughed into it, and so turned again to his old friend's daughter. She was conscious of thinking that this was the first _happy_ smile she had seen on his face since the night when he lit the lamp at Mr. Stanhope's. "He seemed nearly stupefied because you weren't going to scold him, did you notice? I wonder if you are usually very cross with him. But on with our sightseeing! What is the name of this such-and-such a kind of steam-yacht?" "Miss Carstairs," said Varney, struggling against his sudden exaltation for calmness and self-control--"we are both conscious that I owe you an explanation for--for what of course you must think my very extraordinary behavior. Believe me, you shall have it very soon. There is nothing in the wide world--ah--that is, I'd like very much to give it to you now. But--no, no--it wouldn't be quite right--no--not fair--" "You think I am eaten up with feminine curiosity about Mr. Higginson!" she said, a little hastily. "Oh, I'll show you. Look! Look! We're turning around already." "Don't look there. Look in this general direction now and then, and tell me what you see." "I see," she said, looking anywhere but at him, "the strangest, the most _volatile_ and--_not_ excepting Mr. Higginson--the most _mysterious_ man in Hollaston County!" "Where are your eyes, Miss Carstairs? You are standing within two feet of the happiest man in America, and you don't even know it." CHAPTER XIX IN WHICH MR. HIGGINSON AND THE SAILING-MASTER BOTH MERIT PUNISHMENT, AND BOTH ESCAPE IT Passing the town-wharf laggingly like the maimed thing she was, limping nearer and nearer the spot whence she had set out three-quarters of an hour before, Mr. Carstairs's _Cypriani_ slowed down at an abandoned private landing--the same one by which Peter's trunk had been conveyed ashore that morning--and ran out her stairs. As the two on board stood watching the yacht make fast, conversing, if the truth be known, somewhat disjointedly, they were astonished to see the great form of a man rise from a grassy bed a little way back from the river-bank and advance towards them. "Why, look!" said Mary. "There's Mr. Maginnis! I thought he'd gone to town long ago."