He was of course speaking in Italian to her, so that the appropriate play on his own name did not appear, nor had she sufficient English to understand it if he had given the proverb in English; but the truth of it struck home to me when he put it into English for me.
“Assuredly, signor,” she replied; “but why should there have been the will?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Can young English officers leave their ship at all times without question?”
He shook his head.
“You had leave?”
“No.”
“You would then have had serious trouble had you been discovered by your captain?”
“I suppose so.”
“You were not rowed ashore, I suppose, in that fine barge with the guard of honour assigned to you, as when you came to threaten our poor old Governor in the name of His Britannic Majesty?”