“I don’t know what to say, George.”

He restrained himself.

“We’re engaged, aren’t we?” She gave no answer, and he repeated:  “We’re engaged, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all right.  Well, will you give me your absolute promise to marry me in two years’ time—­if I’m in a position to keep you?  It’s quite simple.  You say you don’t know what to say.  But you’ve got to know what to say.”  As he looked at her averted face, his calmness began to leave him.

“Oh, George!  I can’t promise that!” she burst out, showing at length her emotion.  The observant skipper on the bridge noted that there were a boy and a girl forward having a bit of a tiff.

George trembled.  All that Agg had said recurred to him once more.  But what could he do to act on it?  Anger was gaining, on him.

“Why not?” he menaced.

“It would have to depend on how father was.  Surely you must see that!”

“Indeed I don’t see it.  I see quite the contrary.  We’re engaged.  You’ve got the first call on me, and I’ve got the first call on you—­not your father.”  The skin over his nose was tight, owing to the sudden swelling of two points, one on either side of the bone.

“George, I couldn’t leave him—­again.  I think now I may have been wrong to leave him before.  However, that’s over.  I couldn’t leave him again.  It would be very wrong.  He’d be all alone.”

“Well, then, let him be friends with me.”

“I do wish he would.”

“Yes.  Well, wishing won’t do much good.  If there’s any trouble it’s entirely your father’s fault.  And what I want to know is—­will you give me your absolute promise to marry me in two years’ time?”

“I can’t, George.  It wouldn’t be honest.  I can’t!  I can’t!  How can you ask me to throw over my duty to father?”

He rose and walked away again.  She was profoundly moved, but no sympathy for her mitigated his resentment.  He considered that her attitude was utterly monstrous—­monstrous!  He could not find a word adequate for it.  He was furious; his fury increased with each moment.  He returned to the prow, but did not sit down.

“Don’t you think, then, you ought to choose between your father and me?” he said in a low, hard voice, standing over her.

“What do you mean?” she faltered.

“What do I mean?  It’s plain enough what I mean, isn’t it?  Your father may live twenty years yet.  Nobody knows.  The older he gets the more obstinate he’ll be.  We may be kept hanging about for years and years and years.  Indefinitely.  What’s the sense of it?  You say you’ve got your duty, but what’s the object of being engaged?”

“Do you want to break it off, George?”

“Now don’t put it like that.  You know I don’t want to break it off.  You know I want to marry you.  Only you won’t, and I’m not going to be made a fool of.  I’m absolutely innocent.”

“Of course you are!” she agreed eagerly.