"I said them because I felt them, and I hate flummery and thick- headedness. I was as respectful as I could be; but there were things about the trial I didn't like--irregular things, which the Admiral himself, who knows his business, set right." "I remember the Admiral said there were points about the case that he couldn't quite understand, but that they could only go by such testimony as they had." "Exactly," he said sententiously. She wheeled softly on him, and looked him full in the eyes. "What other testimony was there to offer?" "We are getting a long way from our starting-point," he answered evasively. "We were talking of a more serious matter." "But a matter with which this very thing has to do, Neddie Dibbs. There's a mystery somewhere. I've asked Archie; but he won't say a word about it, except that he doesn't think you were to blame." "Your brother is a cautious fellow." Then, hurriedly: "He is quite right to express no opinion as to any mystery. Least said soonest mended." "You mean that it is proper not to discuss professional matters in society?" "That's it." A change had passed over Dibbs's face--it was slightly paler, but his voice was genial and inconsequential. "Come and sit down at the Point," she said. They went to a cliff which ran out from one corner of the garden, and sat down on a bench. Before them stretched the harbour, dotted with sails; men-of-war lay at anchor, among them the little Ruby, Commander Dibbs's cruiser. Pleasure-steamers went hurrying along to many shady harbours; a tall-masted schooner rode grandly in between the Heads, balanced with foam; and a beach beneath them shone like opal: it was a handsome sight. For a time they were silent. At last he said: "I know I haven't much to recommend me. I'm a little beggar--nothing to look at; I'm pretty poor; I've had no influence to push me on; and just at the critical point in my career--when I was expecting promotion--I get this set-back, and lose your good opinion, which is more to me, though I say it bluntly like a sailor, than the praise of all the Lords of the Admiralty, if it could be got. You see, I always was ambitious; I was certain I'd be a captain; I swore I'd be an admiral one day; and I fell in love with the best girl in the world, and said I'd not give up thinking I would marry her until and unless I saw her wearing another man's name--and I don't know that I should even then." "Now that sounds complicated--or wicked," she said, her face turned away from him. "Believe me, it is not complicated; and men marry widows sometimes." "You are shocking," she said, turning on him with a flush to her cheek and an angry glitter in her eye. "How dare you speak so cold-bloodedly and thoughtlessly?"