Part 57 (1/2)
Madeline, having got among old friends, talked with a freedom and an abandon that she had not known since she left her native land. The grace of reticence was a virtue the Harveys had never cultivated. It was their boast that they had nothing to hide. Hence they discussed their domestic and business affairs with a freedom that would have staggered an Englishman of the old school.
Confidence begets confidence; and so in the seclusion of the yacht's library, with only Mr. and Mrs. Harvey and Kitty present, Madeline explained as far as she dared the peculiarities of her present situation.
Peter J. rose to the situation at once.
”My dear child,” he said, ”I guess there ain't no difficulty at all. I don't see none. It's just as easy as falling off a stool. There ain't no occasion for you to go back to their moth-eaten ancestral abode for five minutes. You just come along with us----”
”You mean----”
”I mean what I say,” continued Peter J. ”There's room for you in this small frigate and to spare, and there's a welcome as long as from here to the United States and back again.”
”It would be just delightful,” Madeline said, with dilating eyes.
”But----”
”Then let it be delightful,” Mr. Harvey interrupted. ”I guess we'd be as delighted as you would be. What say you, Kitty?”
”It would be just too fine for words,” Kitty replied.
”It would be like a Providence,” Mrs. Harvey chimed in, ”so we'll consider it settled.”
”But Sir Charles might object,” Madeline said, with a half-frightened look in her eyes.
”You leave his lords.h.i.+p to me, my dear,” Peter J. interposed. ”I guess I know my way about, and if he cuts up nasty, I'll treat him to a chapter out of the gospel of Peter J. Harvey.”
”But what excuse should I make?”
”You needn't make any excuse at all. I'll go across and see the General myself and explain things.”
”But what would you say?”
”That we had fallen across you accidentally; that we were old friends; that I knew your father; that you and Kitty were chums at school; that we are cruising round this here little arm of the ocean for a week or two longer; and that we are taking you along with us just to give you a taste of sea-faring life.”
”But he might not believe you.”
”Then I would bring him across here and let him see for himself and hear your own wishes out of your own mouth.”
”But he would not consent for me to be out of his sight for more than a day or two at the outside.”
”Then to avoid trouble and hard words we will mention a day or two--wind and weather permitting.”
”Oh! Mr. Harvey, if you could get me clean away from them without any unpleasantness, I should be more thankful than words can tell.”
”I'll do it, my dear. And when Peter J. Harvey says he'll do a thing, why, that thing is done. Now give me the location of this Lord Tregony.”
”Oh! he isn't a lord,” Madeline laughed, ”he's only a baronet.”
”Well, it's all the same to me. He wouldn't alarm me if he were your Attorney-General.”
”Don't you think I had better go back with you. I'm afraid they'll be getting alarmed at my long absence.”
”I thought you tumbled across a page-boy belonging to the hotel and sent word by him that you would not be back till evening.”