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Catherine turned cold as the child caught her by the hand, eagerly claiming her attention. All that she should have remembered, all that she had forgotten in a few bright moments of illusion, rose in judgment against her, and struck her mind prostrate in an instant, when she felt Kitty's touch. Bennydeck saw the change. Was it possible that the child's sudden appearance had startled her?
"When you are in London, you will always hear of me at the club." Heartily reciprocating his good wishes, Randal attended Captain Bennydeck to the door. On the way back to the drawing-room, he found his mind dwelling, rather to his surprise, on the Captain's contemplated search for the lost girl. Was the good man likely to find her?
Presty seized her opportunity, and introduced them to each other. "My daughter Mrs. Norman Captain Bennydeck." Compassionating him under the impression that he was a shy man, Catherine tried to set him at his ease. "I am indeed glad to have an opportunity of thanking you," she said, inviting him by a gesture to be seated.
"In the intervals of business, I had felt some uneasiness when I thought of Miss Westerfield's prospects. Your good brother at once set all anxiety on this subject at rest. "He proposed to place Miss Westerfield under the care of an old and dear friend of her late father Captain Bennydeck.
"After all that I have done for you," she answered, "I don't think you ought to say that. Why should I refuse?" Catherine hesitated. Her mother persisted in pressing her. "Has it anything to do with Captain Bennydeck?" "Yes." "What is it?" Catherine roused her courage. "You know what it is as well as I do," she said. "Captain Bennydeck believes that I am free to marry him because I am a widow.
Herbert interrupted him again. "And you thought your interference might be welcome to the lady! Am I right?" "Quite right." "Am I making another lucky guess if I suppose myself to be speaking to Captain Bennydeck?" "I shall be glad to hear, sir, how you have arrived at the knowledge of my name." "Shall we say, Captain, that I have arrived at it by instinct?"
In the pages that followed, the writer confided to him her sad story; leaving it to her father's friend to decide whether she was worthy of the sympathy which he had offered to her, when he thought she was a stranger. This part of her letter was necessarily a repetition of what Bennydeck had read, in the confession which Catherine had addressed to him.
The smile that brightened the captain's face, when Kitty opened the door, answered for him as a man who loved children. "Your little girl, Mrs. Norman?" he said. "Yes." In the meanwhile, Kitty had been whispering to her mother. She wanted to know the strange gentleman's name. The Captain heard her. "My name is Bennydeck," he said; "will you come to me?"
She offered the letter to him. He hesitated. "Is it addressed to me?" he asked. "It is addressed to Captain Bennydeck," she answered. The jealousy that still rankled in his mind jealousy that he had no more lawful or reasonable claim to feel than if he had been a stranger urged him to assume an indifference which he was far from feeling. He begged that Catherine would accept his excuses.
My mother undertook to manage this for me; she saw the servant, and gave him the message which you received. Where is Captain Bennydeck now?" "He is waiting in the sitting-room." "Waiting for you?" "Yes." She considered a little before she said her next words. "I have brought with me what I was writing in my own room," she resumed, "wishing to show it to you. Will you read it?"
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