“There’s the child, remember.”
“Yes. I was forgetting the child. Of course. There’s the child.”
“If you arrest us all and send us home, of course her people will look after her on arrival. Is that a possible solution to you?”
“Between you and me, Margaret, I don’t want to arrest you all. If I do, why, there’ll be a scandal here. ‘The Governor’s friends proved to be escaping felons.’ The cry will be everywhere. I don’t want that. On the other hand, the man’s a scoundrel. H’m. It’s a pretty problem.”
“You can arrest me in mistake for Stukeley. How would that do?”
“No,” said the Governor, shaking his head; “that won’t do. What are your plans for the lady in case I don’t arrest?”
“I suppose we shall have to leave her at Jamaica after a month or two in Darien.”
“Perhaps she’ll be better off there than in England. Has she a woman with her?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t, in your heart, wish me to proceed?”