"Don't yo' b'leve her, Mrs. Sedgwick," said Jordan. "We all has weak spots in our hearts; she's mine."
Grace put one hand on Jordan's hand, the other on Margaret's cheek, and said:
"Say all the pretty things of her that you please, Mr. Jordan, and do not mind her, for her heart has been starving for those same words from your lips for a long time."
Margaret was silent, but she smiled; and a great flush swept over her face as she smiled.
"Everything war right, after all," said Jordan. "Hed I not lost her, I mighter grown careless o' her like other men do sometimes uv those they luv, but no matter, we has a understandin'."
And again the happy woman smiled and blushed.
Then Grace explained how much her husband was needed in England; that she had determined to remain until Mr. Jordan could travel, and let her husband go; that Captain McGregor had sold the "Pallas," and she thought she would remain with them, and asked Jordan if he thought they, with a nurse, could take care of him.
Before he could answer, Mrs. Hazleton interposed and said:
"All this sickness and sorrow came through me. Henceforth my life is to be devoted to where it can do most good. We do not want any display. Why can we not be married? Then I will be his nurse, and he will need no other. You can go with your husband, and we will come when Tom is stronger. What say you, love?"
"Do not answer, Mr. Jordan," said Grace. "We have fixed it for you to be married where my husband and myself—where Jack and Rose—were married. We will remain until you can travel."