‘Nay, not so far, Sir, not so far.’ He lifted his chin, handling his throat as if he traced its contours luxuriously. ‘Yet I may have felt--I do not say--the lure--what I may call the fascination of abnormity.’ ‘Instance, instance!’ ‘Hem! It was in the days--but all’s one for that. My quarters--no matter for what occasion--were at Dunster, one side the British Channel; and hers on the opposite shore. She had a siren voice--I’ll say so much--and sang me with it daily across the water.’ ‘A siren fog-horn rather. Well, you took boat and back--daily?’ ‘No, I swam.’ ‘My God! Fifteen miles if a yard. And back, too. A very quintuple Leander.’ ‘Not back.’ ‘O, not back! You disappoint me.’ ‘Why, Clerivault!’ cried Brion, aghast over this enormous invention. ‘You cannot swim but a yard or two, and that with one foot on the bottom. Have I not seen you floundering in the Dart?’ ‘Fresh water, Sir, fresh water. There’s no comparison between fresh water and salt. In certain seasons of the brine ’tis just to lie and paddle.’ ‘Or to lie and not paddle,’ said Raleigh. He loved this creature, loved to _draw_ him, whether for vanity or inspiration. It was all fruit, he saw, of the same quality of imagination, and had within it for eternal condonation the living kernel of truth and loyalty. He spoke to him, chancing across him a day or two later, on the subject of his young master’s obduracy in a certain matter. Raleigh had urged his friend to make his début at Court under his aegis, promising him a favourable reception. His youth and gallant bearing, he said, would be his certain passports to notice and advancement. It was a kind insistence, and generous on the part of one whose interests were not in creating rival fetiches; but he had conceived a great affection for the boy, and really wished him well. But Brion had declined, with every courtesy, the proffered service. He refused to give reasons; called it a question of sentiment; declared he had no wish to be a Courtier, and was generally as obstinate as a young mule, impervious to any persuasion but that of his own inclinations. The Captain was a little hurt, and when he ran across Clerivault, expatiated on the opportunity his master was deliberately throwing away, and urged him to exert _his_ influence over him to persuade him to a reconsideration of the proposal. But, to his surprise, Clerivault supported the other in his resolution. He declared, with emphasis, that he thought he had decided rightly, and that he, for his part, would certainly do nothing to dissuade him from his determination. And then, being pressed, he gave his reasons, only developing the truth to one who was already in possession of the gist of it:--