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and was soon being treated to a list of Sir Henry’s ailments, and in more length, their cures. He listened patiently to all this, but when she entered upon a pandect of healthful laws that ought to be followed by everyone, the patience began to wear thin.
    Changing tack, Biddy asked him if he had had that little cyst on his cheek examined professionally. Mr. Benson had a small mole at the outer side of his left cheek. Marie had just been thinking how attractive it was.
    “No, it is nothing. I have had it forever,” he said in a dismissing way, then looked hopefully to the younger Miss Boltwood for rescue.
    She tried gamely to wrest him from Biddy’s clutches, knowing nothing would be more likely to send their visitor looking elsewhere for a bed than one of Biddy’s lectures. “We have just had a telescope put up on Bolt’s Point today,” she said. “Perhaps you would like to go up and have a look at it tomorrow,”
    “I would like to go this evening.” he said at once, glancing to the windows, where it was far from dark. They kept country hours, dining at five. “Is it very far?”
    “No, only half a mile away” she answered, and was on the verge of offering to point out the route, as it was visible from the garden, and the garden seemed a good spot to get Mr. Benson to herself for a moment.
    “You won’t want to go out with dark coming on,” Biddy told him. “We get a nasty damp wind here on the coast.”
    “I am not at all troubled by dampness,” he said, quite curtly, and looked to Marie. “Which direction is it?”
    “It’s just half a mile west of the Hall, towards Plymouth,” Biddy informed him. “David will likely be going, if you care to see it in the dark.”
    “It won’t be dark for an hour,” Marie pointed out. Mr. Benson arose without further ado and offered her his arm.
    They made good their escape into the garden. “I really had hoped to meet you in London, you know,” he said, not even looking westwards towards the Point.
    She was curious to know why he had never called on them, and was soon hearing the reason. “I was only intermittently in town. I travel about a good deal, but if I had any notion I had so attractive a connection I should have made a point to call. In fact, Sir Henry had most particularly asked me to do so just before he left town, but I had to go to Vienna for the Congress around that time, and when I returned, you had left.”
    “Papa had a severe attack of gout and retired,” she remarked, knowing little of his shenanigans at the Admiralty.
    Mr. Benson, a little better acquainted with Sir Henry’s career, said, “However, there is more than one place for us to become friends, and I was much gratified at your father’s kind offer.”
    “Do you plan to make a long visit, Mr. Benson?” she asked.
    His eyes lingered on her face and he smiled a very nice smile. “I hope Bonaparte is in no hurry to get himself rescued,” he answered.
    In confusion, she pointed out the path to Bolt’s Point, and they returned to the saloon.
    Sir Henry came to join them, suggesting a little music. Marie was flattered to see that Mr. Benson stopped all talk of going to the Point that evening when she went to the pianoforte. He sat listening with apparent pleasure while she played and David sang. This was the pastime till tea was served, after which there was no entertainment at all.
    Their young guest, an international traveler and Londoner, was shown to his chamber before ten o’clock The ladies also retired, while David went down for a look by moonlight at the Fury , to touch its keel with his finger, and find the finger come away covered with paint. It being still far from late and the night being fine, he took his mount and rode into the inn at Plymouth for some more shoulder-rubbing with undesirables, and some elbow-bending with the same.
     

Chapter 4
     
    When Marie felt her arm being rudely jostled, she thought it must be morning. But as she rubbed her eyes, she saw