"Yes, I'll have a boat."
"I shall never go out with you."
"Cass will. I shall cruise with her, and you, in your house, need not see us depart. Eric the Red made excursions in this region. We will skirt the shores, which are the same, nearly, as when he sailed from them, with his Northmen; and the ancient barnacles will think, when they see her fair hair, which she will let ripple around her stately shoulders, that he has come back with his bride."
Verry looked with delight at him and then at me. "Her long, yellow hair and her stately shoulders," she repeated.
"Will you go?" he asked.
"Of course," I answered, going downstairs. I happened to look back on the way. His arm was round Verry, but he was looking after me. He withdrew it as our eyes met, and came down; but she remained, looking from the window. We went into the parlor, and I shut the door.
"Now then," I said.
He took a note from his pocket and gave it to me.
I broke its seal, and read: "Tell Ben, before you can reflect upon it, that I will go abroad, and then repent of it,—as I shall. Desmond."
"'Tell Ben,'" I repeated aloud, "'that I will go abroad. Desmond.'"