"Yes," said Mrs Otway gently, "a foolish, hot-headed, impetuous boy. Now, my dear Phil, be reasonable. The young lady is sweet and gentle, and sings charmingly. She is a delicious little companion for the voyage, and at your wish Jack and I have been very friendly, not feeling ourselves called upon during a Voyage like this to inquire into people's antecedents so long as they were pleasant." "But--" "Hear me out." "Yes, hear her out, Phil; and don't be a fool!" said Captain Otway. "Mrs Hallam and Miss Hallam are both very nice, and we liked them, and I should like them to the end of the voyage if you were not beginning to make yourself very stupid." "Stupid! Oh, shame upon you, Mrs Otway!" "You say so now, my dear boy; but what would you say if we, your old friends, let you run blindly into an entanglement with a young lady whose antecedents would horrify Lady Eaton, your mother?" "I say shame again, Mrs Otway!" cried Eaton. "Why, everything contradicts your ideas. Would Mrs and Miss Hallam have for friends and companions Sir Gordon Bourne and a clergyman? I had heard of Sir Gordon as an eccentric yachting baronet years ago." "So had I," said Captain Otway; "but they have only become acquainted since they were on board ship. Sir Gordon and the parson came on board at Plymouth." "Now I am going to show you how unjust you both are!" cried Eaton triumphantly. "Julie--I mean Miss Hallam--told me herself that she knew Sir Gordon Bourne when she was a little girl, and that Mr Bayle had acted as her private tutor ever since she could remember." "And what did she say Mr Hallam was?" "She did not mention his name, and I did not ask her. Hang it, madam, what do you think he is?" "I am not going to say, my dear Philip, because I should be sorry to misjudge any one; but please remember why we are going out to Port Jackson." "Going out? Why, to join the regiment--from the depot." "And when we join our regiment our duty is to--" "Guard the convicts! Good heavens!" The young man sprang from the chair in which he had been lounging, and turned white as paint, then he flushed with anger, turned pale again, and glared about the vessel. Just then Mrs Hallam came out of the cabin with Julia and mounted to the after deck, going slowly to the vessel's side, as was her custom, to gaze away east and south, talking softly to her child the while. "Oh, it is impossible!" said Eaton at last. "How dare you make such a charge!" "My wife makes no charge, Phil," said Captain Otway firmly. "She only tells you what we think. Perhaps we are wrong." "And now that you suspect this," said Eaton sarcastically, "are you both going to hold aloof from these ladies?" "Certainly not!" said Mrs Otway warmly. "I have always found them most pleasant companions during our voyage, and I am the last woman to visit the sins of one person on the rest of his family." "And yet you abuse me for doing as you do!" cried Eaton impetuously.