"My dearest," he said, "you don't understand. I'm only a youngster, I know; but I'm quite sure I never could love any one else; that I want you just as you are, whether smiling or in tears, whether frowning--but that doesn't happen often--or laughing. Although we've been parted such a long time, you seem to be the 'Linda who has grown up with me; we've been waiting for each other all this time. Only you mustn't say such things as this, because you hurt me. I can not think what I should do without you now." She looked up at him with a smile, and drew his face down and kissed him. "Rest content," she whispered. "Only be patient with me; I won't desert you." Comethup walked home thoughtfully, holding that last whispered phrase of hers steadily before him, and striving to banish everything else. He found the captain standing leaning over his garden gate, smoking a cheroot, and looking up and down the road. "There's a note for you inside," said the captain; "it was sent round from the Bell Inn an hour since." Comethup, wondering a little, walked into the cottage, followed leisurely by the captain. The note lay on the little table, in the circle of light thrown by the lamp; the young man picked it and tore it open. It was from Brian Carlaw. "DEAR FRIEND IN NEED: I am, so to speak, breathing my native air; but, although there is a popular belief to the effect that one's native air is beneficial, I find it is wholly insufficient to support existence. I am treated here with respect, not to say reverence; my fame (such as it is) has preceded me, even to this benighted spot, and the old place slaps itself upon the back approvingly because it gave me birth; at the present moment I wish it would give me something to eat. Providence, however, watches over the weakest of its creatures, and I hear, by accident, that you are staying within a hundred yards of me. Imagine my ridiculous position: I am spoken of with bated breath as a wonder, shedding lustre on all to whom I will deign to nod, yet I have not the wherewithal to pay my bill, and, moreover, I am burdened. Come and smile upon me--and see the Burden. "Yours in distress, "Brian." Comethup gave a little sigh as he folded up the note and thrust it in his pocket. "It's from my cousin," he said. "He's staying at the Bell; he wants me to go over and see him." "Is he ill?" asked the captain, shortly. "No, I don't think he is ill; he doesn't say so." "Well, I should have thought he might have troubled himself to walk over here," said the captain, "without sending for you." "Perhaps he wasn't quite sure of finding me in," said Comethup. "I think I'd better run over and see him; he wants to see me. I'm sorry to rush out again, sir, in this unceremonious fashion, but I won't be long."