"A small thing to please you with," Cicely answered, without a smile; "I will go if you wish. I should like to have you know, Paul, that I came to you of my own choice," she went on; "I came to you when I would not go anywhere else; Eve will tell you so." "Yes," assented Eve from her place by the window. "Well, I'm glad you had some confidence," Paul responded; "I must try to give you more. And now who will--who will see to you? Does that wool-headed girl of yours know anything?" He looked so anxious as he said this that Cicely broke into a faint laugh. "I haven't lost my mind; I can see to myself." "But I thought you Southerners-- However, Miss Bruce will help you." He looked at Eve. "I am afraid Cicely is tired of me," Eve answered, coming forward. "All the same, I know how to take care of her." "Yes, she took care of me all the way here," remarked Cicely, looking at Eve coldly. "She needs to be taken care of herself," she went on, in a dispassionate voice; "she has hardly closed her eyes since we started." "I feel perfectly well," Eve answered, the color rushing to her face in a brilliant flush. "I don't think we need borrow any trouble about Miss Bruce, she looks the image of health," observed Paul (but not as though he admired the image). "I am afraid your bedrooms are not very large," he went on, again perturbed. "There are two, side by side." "Cicely shall have one to herself; Jack and I will take the other," said Eve. "Where is Jack?" demanded Cicely, suddenly. "What have you done with him, Eve?" Paul opened the door. "Polly!" he cried, in a voice that could have been heard from garret to cellar. Porley, amazed by the sound, came running in, with Jack in her arms. Paul looked at her dubiously, shook his head, and went out. Cicely took her child, and began to play all his games with him feverishly, one after the other. Jack was delighted; he played with all his little heart. XIV. Four days had passed slowly by. "What do you think, judge, of this theory about the shooting,--the one they believe at Romney?" said Paul, on the fifth morning. "It's probable enough. Niggers are constitutionally timid, and they always have pistols nowadays; these two boys, it seems, had come over from the mainland to hide; they had escaped from a lock-up, got a boat somewhere and crossed; that much is known. Your brother, perhaps, went wandering about the island; if he came upon them suddenly, with that knife in his hand, like as not they fired." "Ferdie was found lying very near the point where _your_ boat was kept." "And the niggers might have been hidden just there. But I don't think we can tell exactly where our boat was; Cicely doesn't remember--I have asked her." "Miss Bruce may have clearer ideas." "No; Eve seems to have a greater confusion about it than Cicely even; she cannot speak of it clearly at all." "Yes, I have noticed that," said Paul. "I suppose it is because, at the last, she had it all to do; she is a brave woman."