"What has brought you here?" I demanded as sternly as I could. But I was too greatly relieved to make a convincing display of indignation. "I haven’t been near the hotel, Ma’am," said Gibson, meeting my eyes. "Of course you haven’t. The idea! But, if you had, you’d have startled me less than by running after me on the beach like this." "It’s about Susan, Ma’am," said Gibson. Gibson is not a man of words, and I could see that he was determined not to be scolded or flurried out of the speech he had been rehearsing. "Susan’s all right," I said; "I told you so in my letter." "I thank you, Ma’am," said Gibson, less aggressively. "I sha’n’t never forget how kind you wrote." "What’s the matter, then? You don’t seem to realize, Gibson, that I’m very much annoyed. Didn’t I tell you not to come to Sainte Véronique unless I sent for you?" "You did, Ma’am, you did," answered Gibson, losing his self-control and speaking more and more excitedly; "and I give you my word, Ma’am, I won’t come nearer Sinn Verrynick than this bit of ground I’m standing on. Oh, yes, Ma’am! You’ve wrote right enough, and I thank you. But it’s Susan. She hasn’t wrote not one line, Ma’am--not so much as a card with a photygraph of the pier on it!" "You’ve forgotten the bargain, Gibson. I’m ever so sorry for you; but what did you say at Traxelby? You said you could bear Susan marrying some one else so long as everything was honourable and above-board. You were not to come here unless I found that"--I nearly let slip Lord Ruddington’s name--"that Susan’s admirer was not going to play the game." "So I did, Ma’am," broke out Gibson hotly. "That’s what I said. That’s what I promised. And I’ve cursed myself every day, every minute of every day, since I said it. It was a lie, Ma’am. Whether Susan’s took away from me honest or took away from me dishonest, I can’t stand it, and I won’t. Susan’s mine! I was a dirty hound, Ma’am, ever to say as I would give her up, even if it’s the Emperor of France that comes begging for her with a sack of gold and dymonds. Susan’s mine! She’s the only girl in the world I ever cared about. Yes, Ma’am," he cried proudly, raising his voice and taking a step forward, "and Susan’s never cared a straw about any man in the world ’cept me, and she never shall." "Susan is a free woman, Gibson," I said. "Ever since we left Traxelby she hasn’t mentioned your name. I know nothing about it. But how do you know that Susan ever cared for you? Perhaps she only led you on, as girls do. And, supposing she did care for you, how do you know she hasn’t changed her mind?"