



Produced by David Widger




AT SUNWICH PORT

BY

W. W. JACOBS

Part 4.



ILLUSTRATIONS

From Drawings by Will Owen





CHAPTER XVI

The two ladies received Mr. Hardy's information with something akin to
consternation, the idea of the autocrat of Equator Lodge as a stowaway on
board the ship of his ancient enemy proving too serious for ordinary
comment.  Mrs. Kingdom's usual expressions of surprise, "Well, I never
did!" and "Good gracious alive!" died on her lips, and she sat gazing
helpless and round-eyed at her niece.

"I wonder what he said," she gasped, at last.

Miss Nugent, who was trying to imagine her father in his new role aboard
the Conqueror, paid no heed.  It was not a pleasant idea, and her eyes
flashed with temper as she thought of it.  Sooner or later the whole
affair would be public property.

"I had an idea all along that he wasn't in London," murmured Mrs.
Kingdom.  "Fancy that Nathan Smith standing in Sam's room telling us
falsehoods like that!  He never even blushed."

"But you said that you kept picturing father walking about the streets of
London, wrestling with his pride and trying to make up his mind to come
home again," said her niece, maliciously.

Mrs. Kingdom fidgeted, but before she could think of a satisfactory reply
Bella came to the door and asked to speak to her for a moment.  Profiting
by her absence, Mr. Hardy leaned towards Miss Nugent, and in a low voice
expressed his sorrow at the mishap to her father and his firm conviction
that everything that could be thought of for that unfortunate mariner's
comfort would be done.  "Our fathers will probably come back good
friends," he concluded.  "There is nothing would give me more pleasure
than that, and I think that we had better begin and set them a good
example."

"It is no good setting an example to people who are hundreds of miles
away," said the matter-of-fact Miss Nugent.  "Besides, if they have made
friends, they don't want an example set them."

"But in that case they have set us an example which we ought to follow,"
urged Hardy.

Miss Nugent raised her eyes to his.  "Why do you wish to be on friendly
terms?" she asked, with disconcerting composure.

[Illustration: "'Why do you wish to be on friendly terms?' she asked."]

"I should like to know your father," returned Hardy, with perfect
gravity; "and Mrs. Kingdom--and you."

He eyed her steadily as he spoke, and Miss Nugent, despite her utmost
efforts, realized with some indignation that a faint tinge of colour was
creeping into her cheeks.  She remembered his covert challenge at their
last interview at Mr. Wilks's, and the necessity of reading this
persistent young man a stern lesson came to her with all the force of a
public duty.

"Why?" she inquired, softly, as she lowered her eyes and assumed a
pensive expression.

"I admire him, for one thing, as a fine seaman," said Hardy.

"Yes," said Miss Nugent, "and--"

"And I've always had a great liking for Mrs. Kingdom," he continued; "she
was very good-natured to me when I was a very small boy, I remember.  She
is very kind and amiable."

The baffled Miss Nugent stole a glance at him.  "And--" she said again,
very softly.

"And very motherly," said Hardy, without moving a muscle.

Miss Nugent pondered and stole another glance at him.  The expression of
his face was ingenuous, not to say simple.  She resolved to risk it.  So
far he had always won in their brief encounters, and monotony was always
distasteful to her, especially monotony of that kind.

"And what about me?" she said, with a friendly smile.

"You," said Hardy, with a gravity of voice belied by the amusement in his
eye; "you are the daughter of the fine seaman and the niece of the
good-natured and motherly Mrs. Kingdom."

Miss Nugent looked down again hastily, and all the shrew within her
clamoured for vengeance.  It was the same masterful Jem Hardy that had
forced his way into their seat at church as a boy.  If he went on in
this way he would become unbearable; she resolved, at the cost of much
personal inconvenience, to give him a much-needed fall.  But she realized
quite clearly that it would be a matter of time.

"Of course, you and Jack are already good friends?" she said, softly.

"Very," assented Hardy.  "Such good friends