Hector blushed furiously, and made an awkward sailor bow, standing with Laura's cold and unresponsive hand still clasped in his.
"Very sorry, sir--didn't see you," he said.

"You'll excuse my going on in this mad sort of way, but if you had served you would know what it is to get away from quarter-deck manners, and to be a free man.

Miss McIntyre will tell you that we have known each other since we were children, and as we are to be married in, I hope, a month at the latest, we understand each other pretty well." Raffles Haw still stood cold and motionless.

He was stunned, benumbed, by what he saw and heard.

Laura drew away from Hector, and tried to free her hand from his grasp.
"Didn't you get my letter at Gibraltar ?" she asked.
"Never went to Gibraltar.