'That was of no use. Mark found no traces of us when he went thither.'
'Did he send Mark?'
'No. My dear Alice, I must not conceal from you that this is all Mr. Mark Egremont's doing. He seems to have been helping his uncle with his papers when he came on the evidence of your marriage, and, remembering you as he does, he forced the confession of it from the captain, and of his own accord set forth to discover what had become of you and to see justice done to you.'
'Dear little Mark!' said she; 'he always was such an affectionate little boy.'
'And now, my dear, you must consider how you will receive any advances on his part.'
'Oh, Aunt Ursel, don't! I can't talk now. Please let me go to bed. Nuttie, dear, you need not come yet.'
The desire for solitude, in which to realise what she had heard, was overpowering, and she fled away in the summer twilight, leaving Nuttie with wide open eyes, looking after her vanished hero and desert island.
'My poor Alice!' sighed the old lady.
'Aunt Ursel!' exclaimed Nuttie, 'was—I mean—is my father a good or a bad man?'
'My dear, should a daughter ask such a question?'