"Why, Miss Pinceney, of course. I knew who it was directly I saw her face. Peter, is it true, as papa tells me, that I misunderstood you just now—that she is not engaged to Alfred?"
"Alfred? No!" he replied. "If she is engaged to anyone at all, I have strong grounds for supposing it's to me!"
"Then we must submit, that is all," said Miss Tyrrell. "But we do not know her decision yet; there is still hope!"
"Yes," he said, "there is hope still. Let us go to her; make haste!"
He meant what he said. Sophia could at least extricate him from a portion of his difficulties. Miss Tyrrell—magnanimous and unselfish girl that she was, in spite of her talent for misapprehension—was ready to resign him to a prior claim, if one was made. And Sophia was bound to claim him; for if the engagement between them had been broken off, he could not now be her husband, as he was. Even Time Cheques must recognize accomplished facts.
He followed her across the ship, turning down the very passage in which he had sat
