‘That’s a good job. What’s life without ‘ealth? You must know I haven’t changed my opinion about you. You’re a Calthorpe, and unless your memory comes back to give me the lie, I’ll go to my grave swearing it. What’s the latest argument against me? They say that if you’re like Lady Loocy Calthorpe now, you couldn’t have been like her before you was rescued, because you’re a changed woman from what you was. But who’s to prove that? And what do they mean by change? Fright can turn the hair white, but it don’t alter the colour of the heye, and it don’t alter the shape of the nose, and it don’t alter the appearance of the mouth. That’s where I find my likeness,’ said he, leering at me.
And then, with his whimsical cockney English, he told us of a son of a nobleman who, having quarrelled with his father, had shipped as a common sailor on board a vessel, and made his way to Australia. He arrived at a city in Australia, and tried in many ways to get a living: he drove a cab, he wrote for a newspaper, he was a waiter, he worked as a labourer on the quays, he was a billiard-marker at a hotel, and one night, whilst he was scoring for some people who were playing at billiards, a gentleman, who had been staring hard at him said, ‘Are not you the Honourable Mr. ——?’ and he gave him his name. The young fellow changed colour, but denied that he was the Honourable Mr. So-and-so.
‘But the other wasn’t to be put off,’ said Sir Frederick Thompson. ‘“Don’t tell me,”’ says the gent. “I know your brother, and you’re the image of him.” Such a likeness is out of nature unless it’s in the family line, and at last the young fellow owned that he was the Honourable Mr. So-and-so. ‘And now you’ll find,’ said Sir Frederick, ‘that I’ve discovered who you are, just as the Honourable Mr. So-and-so was discovered by a likeness altogether too strong to be in nature unless it’s in the family line.’
The little gentleman then pulled off his hat and left us.
‘Would he persist if he did not feel convinced?’ said I.
‘He is mistaken, dear. Let him account for your being discovered in an open boat before he attempts to tell you who you are. And what does he mean by a Calthorpe? That you are a sister of his friend, Lady Lucy Calthorpe, or a relative? A sister is a relative, it is true; but relative is a word that will cover a very large number of connections. What member of the family of Calthorpe does Sir Frederick believe you to be? Agnes, do not give the little gentleman’s fancy another thought.’
We were seated on a part of the deck that was not very far distant from the wheel. The corner of the awning shaded us, but all about the wheel was in the sun, and the glare of the white decks, and of the white gratings, and of the white costume in which the sailor who held the wheel was clad, and the white brilliance of the wheel itself, whose circle was banded with brass and whose centrepiece was brass, paled the blue of the sky over the stern, as though a silver haze of heat rose into the atmosphere; and the dark blue sea itself was dimmed into a faintness of azure by contrast with the glaring white light that lay upon the after portion of the ship, which was unshadowed by the awning.
But within the awning the deck was as cool as a tunnel. The violet gloom was for ever freshened by the mild blowing of the breeze through the rigging and over the rail; and the soft wind was made the cooler to the senses by the fountainlike murmur of waters broken by the quiet progress of the ship, and by that most refreshing of sounds on a hot day, the seething of foam.