‘A tempest!’ shrieked Georgie.  ’Then let him stop the boat this instant and put me on shore.  Tell him to land me anywhere—­on the Needles even.  I could stop at the lighthouse till morning.  A storm at sea will be simply my death.’

‘Dear Lady Kirkbank, I was only joking,’ said Lesbia, who did not want to be worried by her chaperon’s nervous apprehensions:  ’so far the night is lovely.’

’Give me a spoonful more brandy, my good creature,’—­to Kibble.  ’Lesbia, you ought never to have brought me into this miserable state.  I consented to staying on board the yacht; but I never consented to sailing on her.’

’You will soon be well, dear Lady Kirkbank; and you will have such an appetite for breakfast to-morrow morning.’

‘Where shall we be at breakfast time?’

‘Off St. Catherine’s Point, I believe—­just half way round the island.’

‘If we are not at the bottom of the sea,’ groaned Georgie.

They were now in the open Channel, and the boat dipped and rose to larger billows than had encountered her course before.  Lady Kirkbank lay in a state of collapse, in which life seemed only sustainable by occasional teaspoonfuls of cognac gently tilted down her throat by the patient Kibble.

Lesbia went to her cabin, but with no intention of remaining there.  She was firmly convinced that the storm would come, and she meant to be on deck while it was raging.  What harm could thunder or lightning, hail or rain, do to her while he was by to protect her?  He would be busy sailing the boat, perhaps, but still he would have a moment now and then in which to think of her and care for her.

Yes, the storm was coming.  There was a livid look upon the waters, and the atmosphere was heavy with heat; the sky to windward black as a funeral pall.  Lesbia was almost fearless, yet she felt a thrill of awe as she looked into that dense blackness.  To leeward the stars were still visible; but that gigantic mass of cloud came creeping slowly, solemnly over the sky, while the shadow flitted fast across the water, swallowing up that ghastly electric glare.

Lesbia wrapped herself in a white cashmere sortie de bal and stole up the companion.  Montesma was working at the ropes with his own hands, calling directions to the sailors to shorten and take in the canvas, urging them to increased efforts by working at the ropes with his own hands, springing up the rigging and on deck, flashing backwards and forwards amidst the rigging like a being of supernatural power.  He had taken off his jacket, and was clad from top to toe in white, save for that streak of scarlet which tightly girdled his waist.  His tall flexible form, perfect in line as a Greek statue of Hermes, stood out against the background of black night.  His voice, with its tones of brief imperious command, the proud carriage of his head, the easy grace of his rapid movements, all proclaimed the man born to rule over his fellow-men.  And it is these master spirits, these born rulers, whom women instinctively recognise as their sovereign lords, and for whom women count no sacrifice too costly.