Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/307

Rh "Hush!" I answered, "you must not say that. If anything had happened to you I should never have been happy again."

"But, Dick, there is one thing I don't understand. At dinner this evening the captain addressed you as Sir Richard—what does that mean?"

"Well, it means this: that though I cannot make you a duchess, I can make you a baronet's wife. It remains with you to say whether you will be Lady Hatteras or not."

"But are you a baronet, Dick? How did that come about?"

"I'll tell you. Do you remember my writing to you of the strange call I paid when in England on my only two relatives in the world?"

"The old man and his daughter in the New Forest? Yes, I remember."

"Well they are dead, and, as the next of kin, I have inherited the title and the estates. What do you think of that?"

Her only reply was to kiss me softly on the cheek.

She had scarcely done so before her father and Beckenham came along the deck towards us.

"Now, Phyllis," said the former, leading her to a seat, "suppose you give us the history of your adventures. Remember we have heard nothing yet."

"Very well. Where shall I begin? At the moment I left the house for the ball? Very good. Well, you must know that when I arrived at Government House I met Mrs. Mayford, the lady who had promised to chaperon me, in the cloak-room, and we passed into the ball-room together. I danced the first dance with Captain Hackworth, one of the aides, and engaged myself for the fourth to the Marquis of Beckenham."