"So you really supposed, sir," she said, sitting near me, "that Captain
Chesters married Miss Nugent?"
"I certainly did," I answered.
"No doubt, thinking," said Mary, with a smile, "that no man in his senses would marry anybody else when Miss Nugent was about, which was a very proper opinion, of course, considering your state of mind."
"And let me say, sir," said Captain Guy, "if I had married Miss Nugent, more people than you would have been dissatisfied. I would have been one of them, and I am sure Miss Nugent would have been another."
"Count me as one of that party," said Mary Phillips. "And now, Mr.
Rockwell, you shall not be kept waiting a moment longer."
"Of course she is safe and well," I said, "or you would not be here, and before you say anything more about her, please tell me what you meant by that terrible word 'but.'"
"But?" repeated Mary Phillips, with a puzzled expression. And Captain
Guy echoed, "But? What but?"
"It was the last word I heard from you," said I; "you shouted it to me when your vessel was going away for the last time. It has caused me a world of misery. It may have been followed by other words, but I did not catch them. I asked you if you had told her that I loved her, and you answered, 'Yes, but—'"
Captain Guy slapped his leg, "By George!" he said; "that was enough to put a man on the rack. Mary, you should have told him more than that."
Mary Phillips wrinkled her forehead and gazed steadfastly into her lap.
Suddenly she looked up.