‘You really mean to follow him?’ I viewed him steadily without speaking. ‘Alone, as you are?’ he continued. ‘All the way to the other side of the world, where you haven’t a friend and where the chances are--the chances are--’ he repeated slowly, then paused and cried out: ‘Why, yes, you have the love and spirit to do it, and when done it will be nobly done, to my way of thinking. But it will be like making a felon of yourself, Marian.’ I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. ‘You know, Will, I couldn’t live separated from Tom.’ ‘Don’t stare so. What eyes you have! Do they shine in the dark?’ ‘He is an innocent, suffering man, and I am as much his wife at heart as though his wedding-ring were on my finger. I mean to do more than follow him. If he goes in your ship I shall sail with him.’ The young fellow drew backward from my hand with a movement of astonishment. ‘Impossible!’ he exclaimed. ‘Stop! Before you say a word--but stay: wait till we have dined. I have much to talk to you about. There will be no going to St. James’s Park this afternoon.’ My maid had entered to lay the cloth, and I broke off nodding and smiling at him, and went upstairs to remove my outdoor things. CHAPTER XIV SHE DRESSES AS A BOY On our sitting down to dinner I made him gather by my looks that I would talk of anything sooner than Tom before my maid. When I had dismissed the girl, Will lay back in his chair and said: ‘It will be a withering stiff joke, Marian, if Butler sails in the _Childe Harold_. It will be precious awkward for me. I shan’t be able to speak to him, I suppose--not even to nod, I dare say. A perfectly innocent man, too; one of the best sailors out of London or Liverpool, a man who’s dined with father and mother and been a welcome guest at their house.’ I waited a moment and then said: ‘And my sweetheart, and husband some day. Why didn’t you add that?’ ‘It was at the end of my tongue. It’ll increase the awkwardness. It’s beastly unpleasant enough to see the friend of your family dressed as a Newgate dandy and in chains, but when you’ve got to cut him--I mean when the sentinels won’t let you look at him--he being all the while your first and only cousin’s sweetheart and engaged to be married to her! But if he’s to be one of our convicts, I’ll take some big risks, Marian, to let him know that I consider him as innocent as I am, and that I’m all his friend down to the very heels of me.’ ‘Will, I have an idea, and I want you to help me to carry it out.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘Do you love me?’ ‘With all my heart, and will do anything I can or dare do for you and Tom.’ ‘Tom is sure to sail in your ship, and I must sail in her too.’ ‘But how? But how?’ said he, a little petulantly. ‘Haven’t I told you that the ship won’t book passengers? They’ll reconstruct her below decks fore and aft, and every inch of her is hired for the lodging of convicts and soldiers and sailors.’