"Through with Shrimp and the shack, by heck! My weddin'-day! Hooray!"
It was owing to a request by Ethel to Van Dusen that the yacht's course was to Portsmouth that night. Early next morning, before the others were stirring, Captain Ichabod rowed Ethel in a small boat from The Hialdo's anchorage to the town. They were absent for a full three hours. On her return, Ethel spoke with enthusiasm of the town's quaint charm, but she gave no details of her visit there, not even to Roy. The old fisherman said nothing at all of the trip, not even to Sarah Jones.
The wedded pair, though urged to prolong their stay on the yacht, insisted on leaving when The Hialdo reached Norfolk. They took with them a promise from their new friends to come south again in order to attend the opening of the new Inlet Hotel.
Colonel Marion was appointed to head a mission to France for study on the war-methods there. On his return to New York from Texas, he urged Ethel's immediate marriage, before his sailing. Naturally, there was no objection on the part of the lovers, and the father was able to depart tranquil in the assurance that his daughter would be safe in her husband's care.
One morning a few months later, as Roy and Ethel sat at breakfast, the servant brought him a letter with a Paris postmark, which was addressed in the familiar hand of Colonel Marion. Somewhat surprised that the letter should be to him rather than to Ethel, Roy opened it and read:
"Dear Roy:
"Just a few lines to give you the surprise of your life. I have found that our old friend, Doctor Garnet, was not lost in the quicksands, as you supposed. On the contrary, he is here in France, doing noble, wonderful work in the branch of his profession that he always loved—surgery. I understand that he has been decorated several times. And also, strange to say, he is going under his own name. I am sending this news to you instead of to Ethel direct, because I feared the effect of a sudden shock on her. You can break the information to her gently.
"With love to the dear girl,
"Your father,
"Stephen Marion."
Roy had little alarm lest his wife should suffer any ill effect from what she would regard as the best of news.
"My dear," he asked at once, "would you be greatly surprised to get authentic information that Gifford Garnet is alive and doing wonders in his profession of surgery? Would you believe it, if I should tell you that he has been several times decorated for his services on the battle front in France?"
To his astonishment, Ethel showed no extraordinary excitement, though her face grew radiant.