Paul let Mabel come up with him before entering the house.
“Do you know where he has gone to, Miss Mabel?” he asked. “I am afraid he has got some wrong notion into his head, and will be doing something desperate when there’s no necessity for it. There are often two ways of looking at the same thing, and in my mind he has been looking the wrong way.”
“I think indeed that he has,” answered Mabel; “but I tried also to get him to speak to my uncle. His guardian, Mr Kyffin, is away in Ireland. I fear they are the only two people who could have persuaded him to act differently. He told me that he intended to remain for the night at the cottage of Dame Tuttle. You might find him there to-morrow morning, and perhaps his mind may by that time be calmer.”
Mabel found her aunt very anxious about her long absence. The baron had gone away some little time before she quitted the drawing-room, so that she knew that Mabel had not gone out to speak to him. She was so thankful, however, at seeing her back, that she did not press her with questions, merely observing: “Since that fearful evening, the commencement of poor Lucy’s illness, I have been so nervous, dear, that I am anxious even when you are more than a few minutes absent from me.”
Mabel, however, had no wish to conceal the fact of her having met Harry Tryon; for she knew that her aunt would sympathise with her in her sorrow. She felt somewhat relieved when she had told her grief; but though the two ladies talked the matter over, they could see no immediate way of extricating Harry from his difficulties. Mabel was for writing at once to Mr Kyffin. At length she bethought her of her godfather, Mr Thornborough. “He knows Mr Kyffin, Harry has told me, and he would be able to intercede both with him and Mr Coppinger.” Many other plans were thought of and discussed. The two ladies, however, agreed to wait till the following morning before they settled the one they would adopt.
Chapter Fourteen.
Manning the Navy in the Old Time.
Often during the night, as Harry lay on Widow Tuttle’s spare truckle bed, he repented him of his resolution to start off immediately to sea.