Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/22

16 "You are welcome on board, madam."

"I thank you, sir."

And the young people exchanged looks.

What he saw was a most fair maiden, tall and straight, graceful with the ease and freedom of nature and good breeding, with sparkling brown eyes, even white teeth, and a merry gleam belying the demureness of her formal words.

What she saw was a young man only a little above the middle height, stalwart and handsome, with quick eyes gray as the winter sea, and a straight, clean-cut mouth, that closed with a look of indomitable courage and determination.

"And yet, madam," the lieutenant went on, leaving his subordinates to help Parson Langney, who was portly, and less agile than his daughter, up on to the deck, "they should not have brought you. For, in truth, we are in no state to receive a lady on board. There has been ugly work to do with those rascally smugglers."

"I come not as a fine lady, sir," retorted Joan, promptly; "but as a nurse for a sick man. There is no state needed by a woman when she comes but to do her duty."