"Thank you a thousand times," he replied, "you cannot imagine the pleasure I feel at renewing our acquaintance; but I cannot take myself off, until you consent to fix a day for our sailing expedition: do trust yourselves on board with me?"
"Come to-morrow," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick, "I shall see how Aveline is, and we will talk it over then."
"Be very well, Miss Fitzpatrick," said Mr. Haveloc, as he shook hands with her, "as soon as I get you on board, I shall make all sail for Algiers."
This was an allusion to a laughing conversation they had once held at Sorrento, respecting the price they would all fetch, if seized upon by some pirate of the Mediterranean, and carried to the slave market at Algiers. It was clear that he remembered all that had ever passed when they were together. Was it wonderful if she thought that love had prompted his memory?
There was a silence of some moments after he left the room, and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who was seated near the window watching Mr. Haveloc as he made his way down to the beach, said:
"What a curious sort of straw hat he wears."
"Does he?" said Aveline, coming near her mother.
"Yes, like the reapers in the 'Tempest.'"
And that was all that passed between them on the subject of Mr. Haveloc's visit.
Lieben Freunde! Es gab schön're Zeiten Als die unsern--das ist nicht zu streiten! Und ein edler Volk hat einst gelebt. Könnte die Geschichte davon schweigen Tausend Steine würden redend zeugen Die man aus dem Schooss der Erde gräbt. Doch es ist dahin, es ist verschwunden, Dieses hochbegünstigste Geschlecht; Wir, wir leben! Unser sind die Stunden, Und der Lebende hat Recht.
"And so you wish you were a pirate, Miss Fitzpatrick," said Mr. Haveloc, as they stood on the deck of his yacht. "I commend your taste. These pirates were pretty fellows in rhyme."
"It would be rather late in the day to commence Viking, would it not?" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick.
"Oh no!" said Mr. Haveloc; "my yacht is quite at Miss Fitzpatrick's service. I do not despair of her making prize of some solitary fishing boat on a dark night. And only think, Miss Fitzpatrick, how excellent the herrings would taste, that you had come by in so meritorious a way."
"I wished to be descended from a pirate," said Aveline, "don't you perceive the amazing difference?"