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I who have made you what you are—a knight and a gentleman. You made yourself a buccaneer. But tell me, did you release these pirates?”

“No; I sentenced them to death.”

“Ah! Then why did they give you the pearl?”

“My dear, they gave it to me because they had nothing else to do with it. They might have presented it to the hangman, but one would feel a trifle diffident about giving pearls to the man who put a rope about one’s neck. Friendship isn’t possible with one’s hangman, I should imagine. Thus, they gave it to me, and I—” he smiled broadly and innocently, “I am giving it to you because I love you.”

“Well, I can easily find out about the pirates, and as to your affection—you love me as long as I have my eye on you, and no longer. I know you thoroughly. But I am glad they are hanged. Lord Vaughn says they are a positive danger even to ourselves. He says they may stop fighting Spain at any moment and start on us. He says they are like vicious dogs, to be exterminated as soon as possible. I feel a little safer every time one of them is out of the way.”

“But, my dear, Lord Vaughn knows nothing about buccaneers, while I—”

“Henry, why do you keep me here with your talking, when you know I have a thousand things to attend to. You think, because you have all the time in the world, that I can afford to help you idle. Now do see to the coachman, because I should be terribly embarrassed if he were not fit.