But unfortunately he was too late. The brig had completed the evolution, and the name on her stern was no longer visible, so the verification of her identity which Segoffin contemplated had become impossible.
"So the devil may have me and welcome, may he?" responded Suzanne, tartly. "You are very polite, I must say."
"Frankness is a duty between old friends like ourselves," said Segoffin, casting a regretful glance seaward. "I came here to amuse myself by watching the passing ships, and you had to come and interrupt me."
"You are right; frankness is a duty between us, Segoffin, so I may as well tell you, here and now, that no stone-deaf person was ever harder to wake than you."
"How do you know? Unfortunately for me and for you, Suzanne, you have never had a chance to see how I sleep," responded the head gunner, with a roguish smile.
"You are very much mistaken, for I rapped at your door last night."
"Ah!" exclaimed Segoffin, winking his only remaining eye with a triumphant air, "I have often told you that you would come to it sooner or later, and you have."
"Come to what?" inquired the housekeeper, without the slightest suspicion of her companion's real meaning.
"To stealing alone and on tiptoe to my room to—"
"You are an abominably impertinent creature, M. Segoffin. I rapped at your door to ask your aid and protection."