They were not all so discreet.  One of the Kents of Gracedieu tried to trip me by thrusting his cane between my legs.  But! was ready for him, and, pulling up quick and bracing my knees, I snapped the thing short, so that he was left to dangle the ivory top.

Then he did a wild thing.  He flung the remnant at my face, so that the ragged end scratched my cheek.  When I turned wrathfully I found a circle of grinning faces.

It is queer how a wound, however slight, breaks a man’s temper and upsets his calm resolves, I think that then and there I would have been involved in a mellay, had not a voice spoke behind me.

“Mr. Garvald,” it said, “will you give me the favour of your arm?  We dine to-day with his Excellency.”

I turned to find Elspeth, and close behind her Doctor Blair and Governor Nicholson.

All my heat left me, and I had not another thought for my tormentors.  In that torrid noon she looked as cool and fragrant as a flower.  Her clothes were simple compared with the planters’ dames, but of a far more dainty fashion.  She wore, I remember, a gown of pale sprigged muslin, with a blue kerchief about her shoulders and blue ribbons in her wide hat.  As her hand lay lightly on my arm I did not think of my triumph, being wholly taken up with the admiration of her grace.  The walk was all too short, for the Governor’s lodging was but a stone’s-throw distant.  When we parted at the door I hoped to find some of my mockers still lingering, for in that hour I think I could have flung any three of them into the river.

None were left, however, and as I walked homewards I reflected very seriously that the baiting of Andrew Garvald could not endure for long.  Pretty soon I must read these young gentry a lesson, little though I wanted to embroil myself in quarrels.  I called them “young” in scorn, but few of them, I fancy, were younger than myself.

Next day, as it happened, I had business with Mercer at the water-side, and as I returned along the harbour front I fell in with the Receiver of Customs, who was generally called the Captain of the Castle, from his station at Point Comfort.  He was an elderly fellow who had once been a Puritan, and still cherished a trace of the Puritan modes of speech.  I had often had dealings with him, and had found him honest, though a thought truculent in manner.  He had a passion against all smugglers and buccaneers, and, in days to come, was to do good service in ridding Accomac of these scourges.  He feared God, and did not greatly fear much else.

He was sitting on the low wall smoking a pipe, and had by him a very singular gentleman.  Never have I set eyes on a more decorous merchant.  He was habited neatly and soberly in black, with a fine white cravat and starched shirt-bands.  He wore a plain bob-wig below a huge flat-brimmed hat, and big blue spectacles shaded his eyes.  His mouth was as precise as a lawyer’s, and altogether he was a very whimsical, dry fellow to find at a Virginian port.