Guida loved the sea; and she could sail a boat, and knew the tides and currents of the south coast as well as most fishermen.
M.de Mauprat met her inquiring glance and nodded assent.

She then said gaily to Ranulph: "I shall sail her, shall I not ?" "Every foot of the way," he answered.
She laughed and clapped her hands.

Suddenly the little chevalier broke in.

"By the head of John the Baptist!" said he.
Detricand put down his knife and fork in amazement, and Guida coloured, for the words sounded almost profane upon the chevalier's lips.
Du Champsavoys held up his eye-glass, and, turning from one to the other, looked at each of them imperatively yet abstractedly too.

Then, pursing up his lower lip, and with a growing amazement which carried him to distant heights of reckless language, he said again: "By the head of John the Baptist on a charger!" He looked at Detricand with a fierceness which was merely the tension of his thought.