“The Dunmoor-Marleys said he was one of the nicest men that ever slept under their roof.”
“How long was he with them?”
“A week; then he was yachting for another week. Jane Dunmoor-Marley says: ‘A man that comes after my daughters can fool me on land, even in my own house; but he can’t on my yacht. Put a man in a cubby-hole, and if he has any bad qualities they will come out.’ So she always takes aspiring suitors to sea. You know they have no end of money?”
“Yes, I know. How did this young man Maybury know Captain Eversleigh?”
“They found they had mutual friends. They didn’t know each other when they came on board. Maybury is half English, anyway. His mother was a Sefton of Suffolk.”
“Was she? He seems to be devoted to his new friend.”
“The Dunmoor-Marleys said Herbert Eversleigh was a regular man’s man. Some of his friends would go through fire and water for him. I guess Jane was sorry she didn’t get him for one of her girls. She has such a string of them.”
“A string of girls—poor woman!” murmured Miss Marsden.