"I want this letter forwarded to my brother--I am very anxious about it. The French agent there will send it on;--it is enclosed to him. Will you do me that favour, my dear sir?--I'm sure you will if----"
"If what?"
"If you love me," replied the widow, laying her hand upon Vanslyperken.
"I will, most certainly," said Vanslyperken, taking the letter and putting it in his pocket.
"Then I shall ask you another," said the widow. "You will think me very foolish, but there may be an opportunity--will you write to me--just a few lines--only to tell me that you have given the letter, that's all--and to say how you are--don't you think me very foolish?"
"I will write, dearest, since you wish it--and now, good-bye."
Vanslyperken took the widow round the waist, and after a little murmuring and reluctance, was permitted to snatch a kiss. Her eyes followed him mournfully till he shut the door and disappeared, and then Nancy Corbett gave way to unbounded mirth.
"So the fool has bit already," thought she; "now if he only writes to me, and I get his acknowledgment of having delivered the letter, the beast is in my power, and I can hang him any day I please. Upon his honour, he did not know a single woman there:--Lord have mercy!--what liars men are--but we can sometimes beat them with their own weapons." And Nancy's thoughts reverted to her former life, which she now dwelt upon with pain and sorrow.
Mr Vanslyperken returned on board; the anchor was weighed immediately that the boats had been hoisted up, and the Yungfrau ran out with a fair wind, which lasted until the evening, when it fell almost calm, and the cutter made but little way through the water. Many of the men were conversing on the forecastle as usual, and the subject of their discourse was the surmising what had become of Corporal Van Spitter. In one point they all appeared to agree, which was, that they hoped he would never return to the cutter.
"If he does I owe him one," observed Jemmy Ducks. "It's all through him that my wife was turned out of the vessel."