"Well, I can get it from Canada."
"And that will take a month. Bluebell, listen to me; for there's no time to beat about the bush. I love you, my sweet child; but that you know already. Will you marry me? Don't start. I know it is sudden, but it will be all easy. Directly we land we can drive to a register office; they will ask no questions, but marry us right off, and we can have it done over again in a church, if you like."
Bluebell began to wonder how many more sensational minutes this hour was to contain.
"Mr. Dutton," she gasped, in a horrified tone, "what are you saying? You must know it is impossible."
"Summon all your moral courage, Bluebell. You were not afraid in the storm. Why do you shrink from acting a little out of the common?"
This speech was so like what Bertie would have said, that it nearly brought the tears to her eyes.
"Pray say no more," said she, shrinking away from him. "How could I ever dream of such a thing!"
"Can't you care for me, Bluebell—ever so little?" pleaded Harry Dutton.
"But that would be so very much!"
Her strange wooer grew more eager, for the moments were passing, and Bluebell was at her wit's end, when the skipper came rolling up to them. The delight and relief with which his proposal of taking her home was received was far from pleasing to Mr. Dutton, and Bluebell, in her lightened heart, felt some self-reproach at the sight of his gloomy countenance.