As for anything deeper and more sacred than friendship, that was ridiculous.

If, for a moment, a remark of hers had led him to dream of such a thing, it was because he was, as he had so often declared, an "old fool." So Captain Cy had resolved upon flight, and he fled to Washington because the business of the "committee of one" offered a legitimate excuse for going there.

The blunt message he had intrusted to Georgianna would, he believed, arouse Phoebe's indignation.

She would not call again.

And when he returned to Bos'n, it would be to take up the child's fight alone.