And yet, why should I come home?
Will you pray for poor Jack, gentles ?" "Tut, tut, man! good words," said Leigh; "let us drink to our merry meeting before you go." And rising, and putting the tankard of malmsey to his lips, he passed it to Sir Richard, who rose, and saying, "To the fortune of a bold mariner and a gallant gentleman," drank, and put the cup into Oxenham's hand.
The adventurer's face was flushed, and his eye wild.

Whether from the liquor he had drunk during the day, or whether from Mrs.Leigh's last speech, he had not been himself for a few minutes.

He lifted the cup, and was in act to pledge them, when he suddenly dropped it on the table, and pointed, staring and trembling, up and down, and round the room, as if following some fluttering object.
"There! Do you see it?
The bird!--the bird with the white breast!" Each looked at the other; but Leigh, who was a quick-witted man and an old courtier, forced a laugh instantly, and cried--"Nonsense, brave Jack Oxenham! Leave white birds for men who will show the white feather.

Mrs.
Leigh waits to pledge you." Oxenham recovered himself in a moment, pledged them all round, drinking deep and fiercely; and after hearty farewells, departed, never hinting again at his strange exclamation.
After he was gone, and while Leigh was attending him to the door, Mrs.
Leigh and Grenville kept a few minutes' dead silence.

At last--"God help him!" said she.
"Amen!" said Grenville, "for he never needed it more.