He went on deck, to meet Iris skipping down the hatchway.

“Oh, there you are!” she cried.  “I was just coming to find out why you were moping in your cabin.  You are missing the most beautiful view—­all greens, and blues, and browns!  Run, quick!  I want you to see every inch of it.”

She held out her hand and pulled him gleefully up the steps.  Leaning against the taffrail, some distance apart from each other, were Anstruther and Lord Ventnor.  Need it be said to whom Iris drew her father?

“Here he is, Robert,” she laughed.  “I do believe he was sulking because Captain Fitzroy was so very attentive to me.  Yet you didn’t mind it a bit!”

The two men looked into each other eyes.  They smiled.  How could they resist the contagion of her sunny nature?

“I have been thinking over what you said to me just now, Anstruther,” said the shipowner slowly.

“Oh!” cried Iris.  “Have you two been talking secrets behind my back?”

“It is no secret to you—­my little girl—­” Her father’s voice lingered on the phrase.  “When we are on shore, Robert, I will explain matters to you more fully.  Just now I wish only to tell you that where Iris has given her heart I will not refuse her hand.”

“You darling old dad!  And is that what all the mystery was about?”

She took his face between her hands and kissed him.  Lord Ventnor, wondering at this effusiveness, strolled forward.

“What has happened, Miss Deane?” he inquired.  “Have you just discovered what an excellent parent you possess?”

The baronet laughed, almost hysterically. “’Pon my honor,” he cried, “you could not have hit upon a happier explanation.”

His lordship was not quite satisfied.

“I suppose you will take Iris to Smith’s Hotel?” he said with cool impudence.

Iris answered him.

“Yes.  My father has just asked Robert to come with us—­by inference, that is.  Where are you going?”

The adroit use of her lover’s Christian name goaded his lordship to sudden heat.

“Indeed!” he snarled.  “Sir Arthur Deane has evidently decided a good many things during the last hour.”

“Yes,” was the shipowner’s quiet retort.  “I have decided that my daughter’s happiness should be the chief consideration of my remaining years.  All else must give way to it.”

The Earl’s swarthy face grew sallow with fury.  His eyes blazed, and there was a tense vibrato in his voice as he said—­

“Then I must congratulate you, Miss Deane.  You are fated to endure adventures.  Having escaped from the melodramatic perils of Rainbow Island you are destined to experience another variety of shipwreck here.”

He left them.  Not a word had Robert spoken throughout the unexpected scene.  His heart was throbbing with a tremulous joy, and his lordship’s sneers were lost on him.  But he could not fail to note the malignant purpose of the parting sentence.