“Very good,” I replied; “you know your life is of no value to me.  I have simply done my duty by you.”

“Your mother, Mrs. Dobree, wrote to me this week.” he remarked, smiling as I winced at the utterance of that name; “she tells me there is to be a grand wedding in Guernsey; that of your fiancee, Julia Dobree, with Captain Carey.  You are to be present, so she says.”

“Yes,” I replied.

“It will be a pleasure to you to revisit your native island,” he said, “particularly under such circumstances.”

I took no notice of the taunt.  My conversation with this man invariably led to full stops.  He said something to which silence was the best retort.  I did not stay long with him, for the train by which I was to return passed through the village in less than an hour from my arrival.  As I walked down the little street I turned round once by a sudden impulse, and saw Foster gazing after me with his pale face and glittering eyes.  Ho waved his hand in farewell to me, and that was the last I saw of him.

Some days after this I crossed in the mail-steamer to Guernsey, on a Monday night, as the wedding was to take place at an early hour on Wednesday morning, in time for Captain Carey and Julia to catch the boat to England.  The old gray town, built street above street on the rock facing the sea, rose before my eyes, bathed in the morning sunlight.  But there was no home in it for me now.  The old familiar house in the Grange Road was already occupied by strangers.  I did not even know where I was to go.  I did not like the idea of staying under Julia’s roof, where every thing would remind me of that short spell of happiness in my mother’s life, when she was preparing it for my future home.  Luckily, before the steamer touched the pier, I caught sight of Captain Carey’s welcome face looking out for my appearance.  He stood at the end of the gangway, as I crossed over it with my portmanteau.

“Come along, Martin,” hee said; “you are to go with me to the Vale, as my groomsman, you know.  Are all the people staring at us, do you think?  I daren’t look round.  Just look about you for me, my boy.”

“They are staring awfully,” I answered, “and there are scores of them waiting to shake hands with us.”

“Oh, they must not!” he said, earnestly; “look as if you did not see them, Martin.  That’s the worst of getting married; yet most of them are married themselves, and ought to know better.  There’s the dog-cart waiting for us a few yards off, if we could only get to it.  I have kept my face seaward ever since I came on the pier, with my collar turned up, and my hat over my eyes.  Are you sure they see who we are?”

“Sure!” I cried, “why, there’s Carey Dobree, and Dobree Carey, and Brock de Jersey, and De Jersey le Cocq, and scores of others.  They know us as well as their own brothers.  We shall have to shake hands with every one of them.”

“Why didn’t you come in disguise?” asked Captain Carey, reproachfully; but before I could answer I was seized upon by the nearest of our cousins, and we were whirled into a very vortex of greetings and congratulations.  It was fully a quarter of an hour before we were allowed to drive off in the dog-cart; and Captain Carey was almost breathless with exhaustion.