What his first words would be when they met and how she would avoid discussing the subject uppermost in their minds if, in his rough way, he insisted on talking about it, was one of the things that had worried her greatly when she decided to come home, for there was never any doubt in her mind as to his knowledge.

But she misjudged the captain, as had a great many others who never looked beneath the rugged bark covering his heart of oak.
"I'm glad you've come at last," he said gravely, hardly touching her hand in welcome, "you ought to have been here before.

Jane's got a fine lad of her own that she's bringin' up; when you know him ye'll like him." She did not look at him when she answered, but a certain feeling of relief crept over her.

She saw that the captain had buried the past and intended never to revive it.
The stern look on his face only gave way when little Ellen came to him of her own accord and climbing up into his lap said in her broken English that she heard he was a great captain and that she wanted him to tell her some stories like her good papa used to tell her.

"He was gray like you," she said, "and big," and she measured the size with her plump little arms that showed out of her dainty French dress.
With Doctor John and Captain Holt out of the way Lucy's mind was at rest.