"Excuse me—I don't quite understand—"
"At sea," explained the squire. "There is no luxury like being below when the decks are wet and there is heavy weather about."
"I should think so," said Mrs. Goddard. "Have you been at sea much, Mr.
Juxon?"
"Thirty years," returned the squire laconically. Mrs. Goddard looked at him in astonishment.
"You don't mean to say you have been a sailor all your life?"
"Does that surprise you? I have been a sailor since I was twelve years old. But I got very tired of it. It is a hard life."
"Were you in the navy, Mr. Juxon?" asked Mrs. Goddard eagerly, feeling that she was at last upon the track of some information in regard to his past life.
"Yes—I was in the navy," answered the squire, slowly. "And then I was at college, and then in the navy again. At last I entered the merchant service and commanded my own ships for nearly twenty years."
"How very extraordinary! Why then, you must have been everywhere."
"Very nearly. But I would much rather be in Billingsfield."