“How can I tell? I can only hope. I think she—no, it sounds presumptuous, but I must tempt my fate.”
“And if the lady—”
“Refuses me—the admiral does not approve?”
“Yes. What then?”
“I must try and bear it like a man.”
There was a few minutes’ silence, though it only seemed a moment, when Guest spoke again in a curiously changed tone of voice.
“But about that Mr Barron, Stratton?”
“Yes; what about him?”
“He is a good deal at Sir Mark’s, isn’t he?”
“Yes; a friend the old gentleman picked up abroad—yachting, I think.”