He rose impatiently, and began to walk backward and forward in the room.  His sister looked after him, with surprise as well as sympathy expressed in her face.  From his boyhood upward she had always been accustomed to see him master of himself.  Years since, in the failing fortunes of the family, he had been their example and their support.  She had heard of him in the desperate emergencies of a life at sea, when hundreds of his fellow-creatures had looked to his steady self-possession for rescue from close-threatening death—­and had not looked in vain.  Never, in all her life before, had his sister seen the balance of that calm and equal mind lost as she saw it lost now.

“How can you talk so unreasonably about your age and yourself?” she said.  “There is not a woman alive, Robert, who is good enough for you.  What is her name?”

“Bygrave.  Do you know it?”

“No.  But I might soon make acquaintance with her.  If we only had a little time before us; if I could only get to Aldborough and see her—­but you are going away to-morrow; your ship sails at the end of the week.”

“Thank God for that!” said Kirke, fervently.

“Are you glad to be going away?” she asked, more and more amazed at him.

“Right glad, Lizzie, for my own sake.  If I ever get to my senses again, I shall find my way back to them on the deck of my ship.  This girl has got between me and my thoughts already:  she shan’t go a step further, and get between me and my duty.  I’m determined on that.  Fool as I am, I have sense enough left not to trust myself within easy hail of Aldborough to-morrow morning.  I’m good for another twenty miles of walking, and I’ll begin my journey back tonight.”

His sister started up, and caught him fast by the arm.  “Robert!” she exclaimed; “you’re not serious?  You don’t mean to leave us on foot, alone in the dark?”

“It’s only saying good-by, my dear, the last thing at night instead of the first thing in the morning,” he answered, with a smile.  “Try and make allowances for me, Lizzie.  My life has been passed at sea; and I’m not used to having my mind upset in this way.  Men ashore are used to it; men ashore can take it easy.  I can’t.  If I stopped here I shouldn’t rest.  If I waited till to-morrow, I should only be going back to have another look at her.  I don’t want to feel more ashamed of myself than I do already.  I want to fight my way back to my duty and myself, without stopping to think twice about it.  Darkness is nothing to me—­I’m used to darkness.  I have got the high-road to walk on, and I can’t lose my way.  Let me go, Lizzie!  The only sweetheart I have any business with at my age is my ship.  Let me get back to her!”

His sister still kept her hold of his arm, and still pleaded with him to stay till the morning.  He listened to her with perfect patience and kindness, but she never shook his determination for an instant.

“What am I to say to William?” she pleaded.  “What will he think when he comes back and finds you gone?”