It was the washing of the sea and the creaking of cordage that were in her ears--the rush of the ship that was to bring him back--that was perhaps bringing him back already.

When would he come?
How soon?
If it could only be to-morrow, she would so like to--what in the world is Mr.Barker saying so earnestly?
Really, she ought to listen.

It was very rude.
"Conscious of my many defects of character--" Oh yes, he was always talking about his defects; what next?
"-- conscious of my many defects of character," Mr.Barker was saying, in an even, determined voice, "and feeling deeply how far behind you I am in those cultivated pursuits you most enjoy, I would nevertheless scorn to enlarge upon my advantages, the more so as I believe you are acquainted with my circumstances." Good gracious! thought Margaret, suddenly recovering the acutest use of her hearing, what is the man going to say?
And she looked fixedly at him with an expression of some astonishment.
"Considering, as I was saying," he continued steadily, "those advantages upon which I will not enlarge, may I ask you to listen to what I am going to say ?" Margaret, having lost the first part of Barker's speech completely, in her fit of abstraction, had some vague idea that he was asking her advice about marrying some other woman.
"Certainly," she said indifferently; "pray go on." At the moment of attack, however, Barker's heart failed him for an instant.

He thought he would make one more attempt to ascertain what position Claudius held towards Margaret.
"Of course," he said, smiling and looking down, "we all knew about Dr.
Claudius on board the _Streak_." "What did you know about him ?" asked Margaret calmly, but her face flushed for an instant.

That might have happened even if she had not cared for Claudius; she was so proud that the idea of being thought to care might well bring the colour to her cheek.