Words seemed to choke me, and her saddening eyes filled me with torment.
"Jasper dear, what is the matter with you?
Why are you so strange ?" I tried to look astonished, but broke down miserably.

Do what I would, my eyes seemed to be beyond my control; they would not meet her steady gaze.
"Uncle Loveday is coming up later on.

He's looking after the Cap--I mean the sailor, and said he would run in afterwards." "What is this sailor like ?" This question fairly broke me down.

Between my dread of the Captain and her pained astonishment, I could only sit stammering and longing for the earth to gape and swallow me up.

Suddenly a dreadful suspicion struck my mother.
"Jasper! Jasper! it cannot be--you cannot mean--that it was _his_ ship ?" "No, mother, no! Father is all right.