I never knew a girl so ready to laugh--though she did cry that morning." He spoke musingly, half to himself.
"What morning was that ?" said Sir Tancred quickly.
"It was a few mornings ago," said Tinker vaguely; and he added hastily, "I think I'll go after her and Elsie; they've gone down the Corniche towards Mentone." "Was it the morning I had an affair with M.le Comte de Puy-de-Dome ?" "Ye-e-s," said Tinker with some reluctance, and he prepared for trouble.

Hitherto his father had said nothing of that timely but eldritch yell.

Now, by his careless admission about the tears of Dorothy, he had opened the matter, and let himself in for a rating.
But Sir Tancred was silent, musing, and Tinker returned to his idle consideration of the Mediterranean.
Presently he said, "She would make you a nice little wife, sir." Sir Tancred started.

"There are times," he said, "when I feel you would take my breath away, if I hadn't very good lungs." "I thought that that was what you were thinking about," said the ingenuous Tinker.
"If you add thought-reading to your other accomplishments, it will be too much," said Sir Tancred with conviction.
Of a sudden there came bustling round the right-hand horn of the bay a most disreputable, bedraggled-looking vessel.

By her lines a yacht, her decks would have been a disgrace to the oldest and most battered tin-pot of an ocean tramp.