daughter. He might almost have been alluding to some harmless domestic animal. Natalie’s color deepened. Her hand pressed Launce’s hand gently.
Turlington still persisted.
“I must once more request—seriously request—that you will check this growing intimacy. I don’t object to your asking him to the house when you ask other friends. I only wish you (and expect you) to stop his ‘dropping in,’ as it is called, any hour of the day or evening when he may have nothing to do. Is that understood between us?”
“If you make a point of it, Richard, of course it’s understood between us.”
Launce looked at Natalie, as weak Sir Joseph consented in those words.
“What did I tell you?” he whispered.
Natalie hung her head in silence. There was a pause in the conversation on deck. The two gentlemen walked away slowly toward the forward part of the vessel.
Launce pursued his advantage.
“Your father leaves us no alternative,” he said. “The door will be closed against me as soon as we get on shore. If I lose you, Natalie, I don’t care what becomes of me. My profession may go to the devil. I have nothing left worth living for.”
“Hush! hush! don’t talk in that way!”
Launce tried the soothing influence of persuasion once more.
“Hundreds and hundreds of people in our situation have married privately—and have been forgiven afterward,” he went on. “I won’t ask you to do anything in a hurry. I will be guided entirely by your wishes. All I want to quiet my mind is to know that you are mine. Do, do, do make me feel sure that Richard Turlington can’t take you away from me.”
“Don’t press me, Launce.” She dropped on the locker. “See!” she said. “It makes me tremble only to think of it!”
“Who are you afraid of, darling? Not your father, surely?”
“Poor papa! I wonder whether he would be hard on me for the first time in his life?” She stopped; her moistening
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