"But in 'twenty-five the Charioteer was run into and sunk, and the Hayle boat that came next," continued the historian, "was the best ever seen till then on these waters, of the hundred and sixty-five steamers launched."
"Yes," said Madame Hayle, "and the firz' boat what my 'usband was captain."
Ramsey started wildly. "The Admiral!" she cried at Hugh. She whisked round on his grandfather. "And then—to beat the Admiral—you built——?"
"My son built—the Abbess."
"And did the Abbess beat the Admiral?"
"Not for a long time. But in 'thirty-three the Conqueror's very first run broke the Abbess's record."
But madame was not to be outdone in generosity. "Ah, yes," she cried, "but that same day the Quakerezz she beat the Conqueror!" At which the teased Ramsey, suddenly seeing that all this was but a roundabout peacemaking where she could discern no strife, laughed herself so limp that she all but tumbled into old Joy's lap.
"That's where we began!" she commented.
"True," said the old man to her mother, "but in 'thirty-eight came your husband's Chevalier——"
"Came—yes! only to get beat racing yo'"—the name eluded her——