"Methinks," said Clara, "I should much like to hear your lover's account of such wonders."
"Nay, so interested is he in these accounts, and the riches to be found on the Spanish main, that had I not over-ruled his design, he would himself have adventured this year with Martin Frobisher."
"I have heard something of Frobisher's former expedition," said Clara. "What were the particulars?"
"Nay, I can but inform you as I have learned it from the lips of others," said Anne.
"They set out, I have heard," said Clara, "for the purpose of discovering a passage to Cataia, in the Indies, by the north-west seas. I do not myself quite understand such matters, but I believe they sailed beyond Friesland, where they came in sight of land inhabited by strange and savage people. In this land they discovered some black substance like sea-coal, and on their return showed it to a goldsmith in London, and he found it to be rich in gold ore, was't not so?"
"It was, lady," said Anne; "this encouraged Martin Frobisher to make a second voyage, when he freighted two vessels home with this black stone, and his project is now so risen in credit that he is about to set sail a third time, with fifteen goodly vessels; nay, had I not used my influence, as I before said, William Shakespeare had surely adventured amongst the crew."
"And so would you as surely have lost a lover, as he would have lost his venture," said Clara. "I have no opinion of these wild schemes—and yet I have half a mind to fit out an expedition and venture myself in quest of a treasure."
"You, lady!" said Anne; "but you are not serious?"
"I was never more so," said Clara.
As she said this, Clara rose from her seat—a hint to her visitor that the interview had lasted long enough.