"No, I shall not. I talk much too vast."
"Humph! you always did." She smiled, but a moonbeam betrayed a tear on her folded hands.
"True," he admitted. "I talk too vast. I'm only claiming the power of words in small as well as large. I've no hope of martyrdom; I'm only confident of victory."
"No matter. You won't go ashore at Natchez."
"You mean your father won't consent?"
"I do. There's one thing, at the very bottom of his heart, that you've never thought of."
"I think I have."
"What is it?"
"That as the Hayle boats are all one day to be yours, and our union would unite the two fleets under the one name of Courteney, he will never allow it."
"He never will."