"Oh!" said the captain, struggling nobly with his feelings. "Oh, you will!"
"To-morrow," continued Joan, "I will buy the wedding-ring. I know that that ought to be your business, but I'll get it, because I know where I can get one cheap. I saw some the other day. Rolled gold they are called. Eighteenpence each."
The captain choked.
"Have you considered," he said, loftily, as soon as he was capable of speech, "that it would be a lie?"
Joan nodded, carelessly.
"A lie!" repeated Captain Trimblett, in a thrilling voice.
"Yes," said Joan. "I remember I heard you tell father once that if you had a sovereign for every lie you had told you would be able to give up the sea. So you had better do it. You can do it better than I can."
Captain Trimblett threw his hands apart with a sudden supreme gesture.
"I won't listen to another word!" he said, hotly. "I should never hear the end of it. Where are those omnibuses?"
"We are not near them yet," was the reply. "We have been walking away from them. When you have listened to reason I will take you to them."