My cabin had been newly furnished throughout, and I found something very touching in the almost ladylike care which had been spent upon it.
I had for some time realised that, as Edmund had said he would, Captain Welfare regarded me as a “swell”; and simply because I was quite unconscious of being anything of the sort, he had conceived a queer kind of devotion to me.
Like the great majority of mankind, both Welfare and Edmund were pleasantest when acting as host. Especially Edmund, because his pride in the ship was gratified by my real pleasure in it, and he was of course free from that well-meant but fussy solicitude that is so common in hosts and so very wearing for the guest.
After our early and hurried meal the supper on board was most acceptable.
The Astarte was footing pleasantly before the fair wind with very little motion, and as we chatted in the warm light of the saloon I felt that my holiday was going to be a great success.
“When do you expect to reach Guernsey?” I asked.
“If this breeze holds we shall be there the morning after to-morrow at latest,” said Captain Welfare. “But we can’t count on it this time of year. It may fall calm any minute. Then it will be a matter of luck with the tides and what bits of wind we can catch.”
“I’m in no hurry,” I said with a sense of luxurious freedom, “I rather hope we shall be delayed.”
“Well, we’ll be a few days in Guernsey anyhow, and then I want to go on to Jersey. I hope that will be quite convenient to you, Mr. Davoren?”
“I shall be delighted. If you call at Alderney and Sark and all the rest of them, it will be all right to me!”