"Now, tell me how you came to be on that vessel; but, first, will you tell me your name?"
"Oh! must I—" and Dexie dropped her head.
"Well, you need not if you do not wish to. I know you, all the same, though I have not heard your name. You are the 'American Warbler.' Now, tell me your story."
"I hardly know how to tell it, though I don't mind you knowing about it. There is so much to tell before you will understand how I came to be on the vessel."
"Well, if it is all a secret, I'll promise not to tell anyone except my wife. She might hear that I have been on the harbor with a young lady, so I had better tell her myself," and he smilingly waited Dexie's explanation.
"Oh! since you are married, it will not be so hard to tell."
There was quite a pause. Where would she begin?
"Come, now, how did you come to be aboard the vessel?" he repeated.
"But I can't tell you how until I have told you why," said she, trying to control her voice, "so I must tell you all that happened this afternoon," and, beginning from the time that Hugh prevented her from joining her sister on the wharf, she told the story of the afternoon, though not without skilful questionings that made the matter clear, though hardly comprehensible. She gave no names, but mentioned Hugh as "the young gentleman."