They bowed, and shook hands, however, and bowed again, and each was the other’s ‘servant;’ and being seated, they talked de generalibus; for the good parson would not come like an executioner and take his prisoner by the throat, but altogether in the spirit of the shepherd, content to walk a long way about, and wait till he came up with the truant, and entreating him kindly, not dragging or beating him back to the flock, but leading and carrying by turns, and so awaiting his opportunity.  But Devereux was in one of his moods.  He thought the doctor no friend to his suit, and was bitter, and formal, and violent.

CHAPTER LXVI.

OF A CERTAIN TEMPEST THAT AROSE AND SHOOK THE CAPTAIN’S SPOONS AND TEA-CUPS; AND HOW THE WIND SUDDENLY WENT DOWN.

‘I’m very glad, Sir, to have a few quiet minutes with you,’ said the doctor, making then a little pause; and Devereux thought he was going to re-open the matter of his suit.  ’For I’ve had no answer to my last letter, and I want to know all you can tell me of that most promising young man, Daniel Loftus, and his most curious works.’

‘Dan Loftus is dead and—­’ (I’m sorry to say he added something else); ‘and his works have followed him, Sir,’ said the strange captain, savagely; for he could not conceive what business the doctor had to think about him, when Captain Devereux’s concerns were properly to be discussed.  So though he had reason to believe he was quite well, and in Malaga with his ‘honourable’ and sickly cousin, he killed him off-hand, and disposed summarily of his works.

There was an absolute silence of some seconds after this scandalous explosion; and Devereux said—­’In truth, Sir, I don’t know.  They hold him capable of taking charge of my wise cousin—­hang him!—­so I dare say he can take care of himself; and I don’t see what the plague ill’s to happen him.’

The doctor’s honest eyes opened, and his face flushed a little.  But reading makes a full man, not a quick one; and so while he was fashioning his answer, the iron cooled.  Indeed he never spoke in anger.  When on sudden provocation he carried his head higher and flushed a little, they supposed he was angry; but if he was, this was all he showed of the old Adam, and he held his peace.

So now the doctor looked down upon the table-cloth, for Devereux’s breakfast china and silver were still upon the table, and he marshalled some crumbs he found there, sadly, with his finger, in a row first, and then in a circle, and then, goodness knows how; and he sighed profoundly over his work.

Devereux was in his mood.  He was proud—­he had no notion of apologising.  But looking another way, and with his head rather high, he hoped Miss Lilias was better.

Well, well, the spring was coming; and Parson Walsingham knew the spring restored little Lily.  ’She’s like a bird—­she’s like a flower, and the winter is nearly past,’ (and the beautiful words of the ‘Song of Songs,’ which little Lily so loved to read, mingled like a reverie in his discourse, and he said), ’the flowers will soon appear in the earth, the time of the singing birds will come, and the voice of the turtle be heard in our land.’