“Duke!” I cried, “come out and let’s see what we can do for a dry. You’ll get the frost in your lungs sitting there.” He rose at once, staggering a little. I had to run down the steps to help him ashore, where he stood shaken all through with violent shiverings. “Whisky,” said our host, laconically, watchful of the poor fellow, “and enough of it to make your hair curl.” Between us we got him into the house, where he was made to swallow at a gulp three finger-breadths in a tumbler of the raw spirit. Then after a time the color came back to his cheeks, the restored nerves to his limbs. At that our kindly host made us strip, and providing us with what coverings he could produce, set us and our soaked belongings before a second fire in his little parlor, and only left us when summoned outside to his business. As the door closed behind him Duke turned to me. A sort of patient sorrow was on his face--an expression as of renunciation of some favored child of his fancy--I cannot express it better. “You carried her in?” he said, quietly. “Dolly? Yes.” “Where is she?” “Baking before the kitchen fire. She’ll be ready before we are.” “Well--I had no right. What a chapter of mishaps.” Then he turned upon me with a sudden clap of fierceness. “Why did you ever propose this trip? I tried to dissuade you, and you might have known I was an idiot on the water.” “My good Duke,” I answered, with a coolness that covered a fine glow of heat, “that don’t sound very gracious. I meant it for a pleasure party, of course. Accidents aren’t matters under human control, you know.” He struck his knee savagely. “No,” he muttered, “or I shouldn’t have these.” Then in a moment the sweetness came back to his face, and he cried with a smile, half-humorous and all pathetic: “Here’s the value of my philosophy. I’m no more consistent than a Ripley pamphlet and not a quarter so amusing. But--oh, if I had only learned to swim!” CHAPTER XVII. A TOUCHING REVELATION. For nearly four years did I work persistently, striving to redeem my past, at the offices in Great Queen Street. At this period my position was greatly improved, my services estimated at a value that was as honorable to my employer as it was advantageous to me. I had grown to be fairly at peace with myself and more hopeful for the future than I had once deemed it possible that I could ever be.