“Loves me?  Well, of course.  I found her, and brought her home; and I don’t deny she may think that she owes me somewhat—­though it was no more than a Christian man’s duty.  But as for her caring much for me, mother, you measure every one else’s tenderness by your own.”

“Think that she owes you somewhat?  Silly boy, this is not gratitude, but a deeper affection, which may be more heavenly than gratitude, as it may, too, become a horrible cause of ruin.  It rests with you, Amyas, which of the two it will be.”

“You are in earnest?”

“Have I the heart or the time to jest?”

“No, no, of course not; but, mother, I thought it was not comely for women to fall in love with men?”

“Not comely, at least, to confess their love to men.  But she has never done that, Amyas; not even by a look or a tone of voice, though I have watched her for months.”

“To be sure, she is as demure as any cat when I am in the way.  I only wonder how you found it out.”

“Ah,” said she, smiling sadly, “even in the saddest woman’s soul there linger snatches of old music, odors of flowers long dead and turned to dust—­pleasant ghosts, which still keep her mind attuned to that which may be in others, though in her never more; till she can hear her own wedding-hymn re-echoed in the tones of every girl who loves, and sees her own wedding-torch re-lighted in the eyes of every bride.”

“You would not have me marry her?” asked blunt, practical Amyas.

“God knows what I would have—­I know not; I see neither your path nor my own—­no, not after weeks and months of prayer.  All things beyond are wrapped in mist; and what will be, I know not, save that whatever else is wrong, mercy at least is right.”

“I’d sail to-morrow, if I could.  As for marrying her, mother—­her birth, mind me—­”

“Ah, boy, boy!  Are you God, to visit the sins of the parents upon the children?”

“Not that.  I don’t mean that; but I mean this, that she is half a Spaniard, mother; and I cannot!—­Her blood may be as blue as King Philip’s own, but it is Spanish still!  I cannot bear the thought that my children should have in their veins one drop of that poison.”

“Amyas!  Amyas!” interrupted she, “is this not, too, visiting the parents’ sins on the children?”

“Not a whit; it is common sense,—­she must have the taint of their bloodthirsty humor.  She has it—­I have seen it in her again and again.  I have told you, have I not?  Can I forget the look of her eyes as she stood over that galleon’s captain, with the smoking knife in her hand.—­Ugh!  And she is not tamed yet, as you can see, and never will be:—­not that I care, except for her own sake, poor thing!”

“Cruel boy! to impute as a blame to the poor child, not only the errors of her training, but the very madness of her love!”

“Of her love?”

“Of what else, blind buzzard?  From the moment that you told me the story of that captain’s death, I knew what was in her heart—­and thus it is that you requite her for having saved your life!”