“And her fortune?”
“She is none the worse for that. But I swear to you, Dicky Glyn, that I would carry her off as the Romans did the Sabine maidens, if she had not a shilling,”—which I believed to be true; for his was an infatuation which takes account of nothing.
He then began to tell me of his plans, and in them he showed his usual shrewdness and boldness. The trip to Scarborough had put Scotland in his head. He was likely to be sent to sea any day, to be gone, perhaps, for years; just the arguments I had used to myself first and to Daphne afterward.
I remembered that scene five years before, with Overton and Lady Arabella in Sir Peter’s cubby-hole; and the memory of it made me think with dread of Giles Vernon’s marrying Arabella. But I could not speak openly; and, after all, she was so strange a creature that one could scarcely judge her by the standard of other women. And then the plan I had to confide to him very effectually withdrew the charges of any battery I might have brought to bear on him.
When he had finished his tale, and I had told mine, Giles was in an ecstasy. He laughed in his uproarious good humor.
“Oh, you sly dog!” he shouted. “So you are up to the same game!”
I explained that I had not much to fear. Daphne was undoubtedly fond of me, and Lady Hawkshaw being on our side, and other reasons in our favor,—all of which fitted Giles’ case exactly. And at last I gave up, in sheer despair, and agreed to Giles’ suggestion that we should together carry off the two damsels of our hearts; and then and there we made our plans, sitting up until the gray dawn came.
Oh, the madness of it! the wildness of it! But we were two dare-devil and happy-go-lucky lieutenants, without the prudence of landsmen. We loved, and we were liable at any moment to be torn away for many years from the idols of our hearts. Runaway marriages were common; and only the parents and guardians were offended in those cases, and forgiveness generally followed. We were about to commit a great folly; but we thought we were nobly sustaining the reputation of his Majesty’s sea-officers for our spirit and gallantry with the fair sex, and looked not to the dreadful consequences of our desperate adventure.
VIII
Giles Vernon and I agreed that it was necessary we should strike the blow as soon as possible, while we had the weather-gage, so to speak, of Sir Peter; and on the day after his traveling chariot took its way north, a very plain post-chaise followed it, and in it were Giles Vernon and myself.