“I’m very sorry, Sir Mark.”
“So am I, sir,” said the admiral. “There’s an end to our trip.”
“Sir Mark! Don’t talk like that. I’ll leave the hotel to-morrow. I would not on any consideration—”
“That will do, Mr Barron; that will do. I’m a man of few words, and what I say I mean. This can go no further here.”
“You don’t mean that you will go away?”
“Back to England, sir, and home as fast as I can.”
“But my proposal, sir?”
“I have a sister there, sir, my counsellor in all matters concerning my two girls.”
“But you will give me leave to call—in England?”
“Tchah, man! You’ll forget it all in a month.”