"Well, thank God, you are safe, sur."
"Yes, I thank God too, Mrs. Briggs."
The woman looked at him curiously; there was a new tone in his voice, a new light in his eyes. He no longer seemed a "strange Eastern gentleman" to her.
He ate his dinner in silence. He had but little appetite, but he went through the form of eating for fear Mrs. Briggs should think he was not pleased with her cooking.
Presently he rose to go out. "Goin' out again, sur? I should have thought you'd been tired after bein' out in all that storm. I should think you don't get any wilder storms in the parts you've come from."
"Different, Mrs. Briggs, entirely different."
"I suppose it's very grand, in they furrin parts," said Mrs. Briggs, "but I don't want to leave Vale Linden."
"Nor I, Mrs. Briggs; but I shall have to."
"Not yet, sur, I hope."
"Yes, very soon, I expect."