“I know, my boy!” he answered, choking; “and I’m d—d if I think all the diamonds in the world worth such a life.”
“It is not only for the diamonds, my Lord.”
“I know, my boy. Honour! Duty! It is to win the right to ask for a post of honour. Remember, if you are hard pressed, to fire your pistols. If one of our boats hears, it will dash in and land a party. My orders are, ‘Follow up a shot.’—And Will?”
“My Lord.”
“Stay five minutes, while I send Tom Allen to summon My Lady. Her honour,” he whispered, glancing towards Donna Rusidda, after the good Tom had gone, “is in our joint keeping; and,” he added aloud, “you love her—that I have seen.”
“I love her, and worship her, my Lord.”
“And Princess, I may take it that you love him?”
“Alas, no, my Lord; though I owe him the greatest debt of gratitude which a woman can owe a man.”
The Admiral seemed dumbfounded. “You will learn to love him, Princess: he has excellent prospects.”
“I do love him, my Lord; but I do not and cannot ever love him as a husband or a lover. I love him,” she continued, with a sweet light of gratitude shining from her eyes, “as the finest gentleman I have ever met.”