But it was harder navigation below-stairs than above. The instant they
set foot in the parlour the quick, womanly eye detected that there was
something wrong. Kitty exclaimed, frightened, as she ran to her lover's
side, "Alfred! What's the matter?" Mrs. Raybrock cried out to the
captain, "Gracious! what have you done to my son to change him like this
all in a minute?" And the young widow--who was there with her work upon
her arm--was at first so agitated that she frightened the little girl she
held in her hand, who hid her face in her mother's skirts and screamed.
The captain, conscious of being held responsible for this domestic
change, contemplated it with quite a guilty expression of countenance,
and looked to the young fisherman to come to his rescue.
"Kitty, darling," said Young Raybrock, "Kitty, dearest love, I must go
away to Lanrean, and I don't know where else or how much further, this
very day. Worse than that--our marriage, Kitty, must be put off, and I
don't know for how long."
Kitty stared at him, in doubt and wonder and in anger, and pushed him
from her with her hand.
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