"Yes, he assured us he was ignorant, and I should not wonder if he spoke the truth--French truth, perhaps; but I don't believe he suspected more than a little smuggling venture, or an un-actionable intrigue of some kind. He knew the man somewhat, and made a bargain to lay outside the harbor for a few hours, and pick them up if they came out before daylight. The man told him it was his wife and child, who had been detained in the country by the illness of the child, and that he would pay him fifty dollars, besides the passage money, if he'd wait for them. No doubt the captain suspected something, but, as I say, nothing so serious as the job they'd undertaken." "The wretch! He ought to have had his ship brought back to port, and have been kept there for a month, at least, and lost his cargo, and been put to no end of loss and law. You were ridiculously weak, Mr. Andrews, to let him go, and worse than weak to let the woman go." "Maybe so, Miss Varian, maybe so. It wouldn't be the first time, at any rate." "To think of that horrid creature going off and doing what she chooses!" "I'd rather think of her in South than in North America. And as to doing what she chooses--she'll do that, whichever continent she's on--for she is a woman." "You should have shut her up in prison, and made that captain suffer all that the law could put upon him. You wouldn't appear against them because you are too lazy, Mr. Andrews, and that is the English of it. And so other people's children may be stolen, and other vessels go prowling around our shores, and this sort of thing be done with perfect impunity, Mr. Andrews, with perfect impunity." "I am very sorry, Miss Varian, but I hope it won't be as bad as you anticipate. There are not many women as wicked as Alphonsine, and I don't think she will try it again." "Try it again! Why, she will try something worse. She will never rest. I shan't sleep easy in my bed. I do not think we are safe from her attempts, any one of us." Thereupon Goneril laughed, a most disrespectful laugh, though a suppressed one, and her mistress, in a temper, ordered her out of the parlor. She obeyed the order in the letter, but not in the spirit, pausing to talk to Jay about the kittens, and then inviting him to the piazza, where, the windows being open, she could hear the conversation within as well as before. This episode broke the thread of Miss Varian's catechism, and she forgot Alphonsine in her wrath against Goneril. Meanwhile, a carriage drove up with visitors; Mr. Andrews hurried to depart, Missy disappeared into the adjoining room, and Miss Varian, being left to entertain them, soon forgot her maid's offenses. Visitors were a balm for most wounds, with her. CHAPTER XVIII. AT THE BEACH GATE.