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insisted that her reputation had been damaged.  He stated firmly that the only way a gentleman could behave was to ask for her hand in marriage.
    The Marquis’s friend had been in despair.
    “I quite like Elizabeth,” he groaned.  “She is a very pleasant girl and I have known her since I was a child, but I have no desire to marry her.  What the hell can I do?”
    “Have you explained what you feel to your father?” the Marquis had asked him.
    “My father says,” was the reply, “if I don’t do the decent thing, it will besmirch the whole family and I will be branded as a cad for the rest of my life.”
    The Marquis had agreed to be his Best Man, as there had been nothing else he could do for him.
    He told himself then that if there was a storm when he was out riding, he would much rather be soaked to the skin than shelter from it with a woman!
*
    Later that day a big storm blew up, but The Neptune proved more than able to cope with it.
    The Marquis was never seasick, yet because there was a great deal of pitching and tossing, he learnt later that several of the crew had succumbed.
    “I will pull into a harbour this evening, my Lord,” suggested Captain Gordon.  “There is just no point in being uncomfortable and it is in storms like this that one can run into rocks or collide with another ship.”
    The Marquis exclaimed in frustration.
    “For Heaven’s sake, Captain, must you!  The yacht seems so perfect at present and that is how I want her to remain.”
    “So do I, my Lord, and you are not to worry.   The Neptune is sounder and more dependable than any woman!  She will not let us down.”
    The Marquis believed this to be true.
    He enjoyed an excellent dinner in comfort while the yacht was anchored in a small harbour.
    What was more the sea was subsiding and, when he finished his meal, he began reading a most interesting book on India.
    Later he read several more chapters in bed before he turned out the lights.
    He kept telling himself that he would not dwell on Isobel, but at the same time in the darkness, he could not help wondering what she was thinking and feeling.
    He had no wish to make her unhappy, but he could not sacrifice himself merely to give a woman the pleasure of being his wife and sharing his title.
    ‘When I am getting on for the ripe old age of forty,’ he reflected, ‘I will begin to think seriously of getting married.  That would give me ten more years of sheer enjoyment – untroubled, un-nagged and un-bored!’
    The words seemed almost to roll off his tongue.
    Then he chuckled.
    He was being far too serious about what was really just a minor episode in his life.
    There would undoubtedly be a great many more of his affairs-de-coeur yet to come.
    ‘The only thing I have to avoid,’ he mused before he fell asleep, ‘is a trap.  By now I should be quite sensible enough to recognise one on sight!’
*
    The next day the sun was shining and The Neptune was moving swiftly and the Marquis spent most of the day on the bridge with Captain Gordon.
    He listened to many stories about the sea and Scotland that he had never heard before.
    When the Captain wished to go below, the Marquis took charge and he found controlling the yacht himself was as exhilarating as riding a spirited stallion.
    By the time the day was over, they had progressed a long way up the coast.
    Tomorrow they would be in Scottish waters.
    The Marquis debated whether he would stop off in Edinburgh, as it was a City he really wanted to visit again.
    He had read with much interest a new book which had described how much George IV had enjoyed a Royal visit to Edinburgh soon after he became King, when he had been welcomed with open arms.
    ‘Perhaps I will go there on my way back South,’ the Marquis pondered.
    The Earl of Darendell would have by now received the letter he had told Mr. Foster to write and he would be expecting him shortly and it would be somewhat rude if he lingered too long on the journey.
    He tried to