CHAPTER X
MARRIAGE AND DEATH
Very early the next morning when Nancy came out of her father's room, she found Mrs. Hicks already in the verandah, wrapped in a flaming kimona, and sipping a cup of tea.
"Well, dear child?" she began, then paused, and looked at her interrogatively.
"Daddy has been talking to me," she announced in a dull voice, staring at Mrs. Hicks with a curious dazed expression, "and—he—he wishes me—to marry Captain Mayne."
"Lors!" exclaimed her companion, jumping to her feet. "Whatever for?"
"Because I'm so alone in the world, and have no home!" replied the girl, as if she was repeating a lesson.
"And what does the Captain say?"
"He wishes it too."
"And what do you say, Ducky?"