Need we say that, after a few more hurried touches to costume, the door was opened, and the untimely visitors were admitted? Need we add that when Rose, with a little cry of joy, leaped into her father’s arms and received a paternal hug, she leaped out of them again with a little shriek of surprise?
“Father, you’re all wet! a perfect sponge!”
“True, darling, I forgot! I’ve just been wrecked, and rescued by the lifeboat through God’s great mercy, ’long with all my crew; and there,” he added, pointing to Jeff, “stands the man that saved my life.”
If Rose loved the young coastguardsman before, she absolutely idolised him now. Something of the feeling must have betrayed itself on her fair face, for Jeff made a step towards her, as if under an irresistible impulse to seize her hand.
But at that moment he experienced an agonising sensation of pain, and, staggering backwards, sat down—almost fell—upon the sofa.
“Nothing—nothing,” he replied, to the anxious inquiries of Miss Millet. “Only a little pain, caused by the rap I got from that mast. Come now, auntie, don’t fuss about me, but sit down and hear what the captain has got to say.”