"I will go wherever you choose," he said; "I am in your hands." "I came," she said, "to take you to her. She is asking for you." "She?" said Peter. "For heaven's sake, _who?_" "Why, Miss Pinceney, of course. I knew who it was directly I saw her face. Peter, is it true, as papa tells me, that I misunderstood you just now--that she is _not_ engaged to Alfred?" "Alfred? No!" he replied. "If she is engaged to anyone at all, I have strong grounds for supposing it's to me!" "Then we must submit, that is all," said Miss Tyrrell. "But we do not know her decision yet; there is still hope!" "Yes," he said, "there is hope still. Let us go to her; make haste!" He meant what he said. Sophia could at least extricate him from a portion of his difficulties. Miss Tyrrell--magnanimous and unselfish girl that she was, in spite of her talent for misapprehension--was ready to resign him to a prior claim, if one was made. And Sophia was bound to claim him; for if the engagement between them had been broken off, he could not now be her husband, as he was. Even Time Cheques must recognise accomplished facts. He followed her across the ship, turning down the very passage in which he had sat through more than one cheque with Miss Davenport; and on the opposite side he found Sophia standing, with her usual composure, waiting for his arrival. She was so identically the same Sophia that he had left so lately, that he felt reassured. She, at least, could not be the dupe of all this. She had come--how, he did not trouble himself to think,--but she had come with the benevolent intention of saving him! "How do you do, my love?" he began. "I--I thought I should see you here." "You only see me here, Peter," she replied, in a voice that trembled slightly, in spite of her efforts to command it, "because I felt very strongly that it was my duty to put an end at the earliest moment to a situation which has become impossible!" "I'm sure," said Peter, "it is quite time it _was_ put an end to--it couldn't go on like this much longer." "It shall not, if I can help it," she said. "Miss Tyrrell, pray don't go away; what I have to say concerns you too." "No; don't go away, Miss Tyrrell," added Peter, who felt the most perfect confidence in Sophia's superior wisdom, and was now persuaded that somehow it was all going to be explained. "Sir William, will you kindly step this way too? Sir William Tyrrell--Miss Pinceney. Miss Pinceney has something to tell you which will make my position thoroughly clear." "I have only to say," she said, "that your honourable and straightforward conduct, Peter, has touched me to the very heart. I feel that I am the only person to blame, for it was I who insisted upon your subjecting yourself to this test." "It was," said Peter. "I told you something would happen--and it has!"