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.Miss Bishop's charms wereundeniable.But they were such that it would take a delicate-mindedman to appreciate them; and my Lord Julian, whilst of a mind thatwas very far from gross, did not possess the necessary degree ofdelicacy.I must not by this be understood to imply anything againsthim.It remained, however, that Miss Bishop was a young woman and a lady;and in the latitude into which Lord Julian had strayed this was aphenomenon sufficiently rare to command attention.On his side,with his title and position, his personal grace and the charm of apractised courtier, he bore about him the atmosphere of the greatworld in which normally he had his being - a world that was littlemore than a name to her, who had spent most of her life in theAntilles.It is not therefore wonderful that they should have beenattracted to each other before the Royal Mary was warped out of St.Nicholas.Each could tell the other much upon which the otherdesired information.He could regale her imagination with storiesof St.James's - in many of which he assigned himself a heroic, orat least a distinguished part - and she could enrich his mind withinformation concerning this new world to which he had come.Before they were out of sight of St.Nicholas they were good friends,and his lordship was beginning to correct his first impressions ofher and to discover the charm of that frank, straightforward attitudeof comradeship which made her treat every man as a brother.Considering how his mind was obsessed with the business of hismission, it is not wonderful that he should have come to talk to herof Captain Blood.Indeed, there was a circumstance that directlyled to it."I wonder now," he said, as they were sauntering on the poop, "ifyou ever saw this fellow Blood, who was at one time on your uncle'splantations as a slave."Miss Bishop halted.She leaned upon the taffrail, looking outtowards the receding land, and it was a moment before she answeredin a steady, level voice:"I saw him often.I knew him very well.""Ye don't say!" His lordship was slightly moved out of animperturbability that he had studiously cultivated.He was a youngman of perhaps eight-and-twenty, well above the middle height instature and appearing taller by virtue of his exceeding leanness.He had a thin, pale, rather pleasing hatchet-face, framed in thecurls of a golden penwig, a sensitive mouth and pale blue eyes thatlent his countenance a dreamy expression, a rather melancholypensiveness.But they were alert, observant eyes notwithstanding,although they failed on this occasion to observe the slight changeof colour which his question had brought to Miss Bishop's cheeksor the suspiciously excessive composure of her answer."Ye don't say!" he repeated, and came to lean beside her."And whatmanner of man did you find him?""In those days I esteemed him for an unfortunate gentleman.""You were acquainted with his story?""He told it me.That is why I esteemed him - for the calm fortitudewith which he bore adversity.Since then, considering what he hasdone, I have almost come to doubt if what he told me of himself wastrue.""If you mean of the wrongs he suffered at the hands of the RoyalCommission that tried the Monmouth rebels, there's little doubt thatit would be true enough.He was never out with Monmouth; that iscertain.He was convicted on a point of law of which he may wellhave been ignorant when he committed what was construed into treason.But, faith, he's had his revenge, after a fashion.""That," she said in a small voice, "is the unforgivable thing.Ithas destroyed him - deservedly.""Destroyed him?" His lordship laughed a little."Be none so sureof that.He has grown rich, I hear.He has translated, so it issaid, his Spanish spoils into French gold, which is being treasuredup for him in France.His future father-in-law, M.d'Ogeron, hasseen to that.""His future father-in-law?" said she, and stared at him round-eyed,with parted lips.Then added: "M.d'Ogeron? The Governor ofTortuga?""The same.You see the fellow's well protected.It's a piece ofnews I gathered in St.Nicholas
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