My Danish Sweetheart Volume II Part 23

When breakfast was ended, Helga left the table, to go to her cabin.

Punmeamootty began to clear away the things.

'You can go forward,' said the Captain. 'I will call you when I want you.' I was about to rise. 'A minute, Mr. Tregarthen,' he exclaimed. He lay back in his chair, stroking first one whisker and then the other, with his eyes thoughtfully surveying the upper deck, at which he smiled as though elated by some fine happy fancies. He hung in the wind in this posture for a little while, then inclined himself with a confidential air towards me, clasping his fat fingers upon the table.

'Miss Nielsen,' said he softly, 'is an exceedingly attractive young lady.'

'She is a good brave girl,' said I, 'and pretty, too.'

'She calls you Hugh, and you call her Helga--Helga! a very n.o.ble, stirring name--quite like the blast of a trumpet, with something Biblical about it, too, though I do not know that it occurs in Holy Writ. Pray forgive me. This familiar interchange of names suggests that there may be more between you than exactly meets the eye, as the poet observes.'

'No!' I answered with a laugh that was made short by surprise. 'If you mean to ask whether we are sweethearts, my answer is--No. We met for the first time on the twenty-first of this month, and since then our experiences have been of a sort to forbid any kind of emotion short of a profound desire to get home.'

'Home!' said he. 'But her home is in Denmark?'

'Her father, as he lay dying, asked me to take charge of her, and see her safe to Kolding, where I believe she has friends,' I answered, not choosing to hint at the little half-matured programme for her that was in my mind.

'She is an orphan,' said he; 'but she has friends, you say?'

'I believe so,' I answered, scarcely yet able to guess at the man's meaning.

'You have known her since the twenty-first,' he exclaimed: 'to-day is the thirty-first--just ten days. Well, in that time a shrewd young gentleman like you will have observed much of her character. I may take it,' said he, peering as closely into my face as our respective positions at the table would suffer, 'that you consider her a thoroughly religious young woman?'

'Why, yes, I should think so,' I answered, not suffering my astonishment to hinder me from being as civil and conciliatory as possible to this man, who, in a sense, was our deliverer, and who, as our host, was treating us with great kindness and courtesy.

'I will not,' said he, 'inquire her disposition. She impresses me as a very sweet young person. Her manners are genteel. She talks with an educated accent, and I should say her lamented father did not stint his purse in training her.'

I looked at him, merely wondering what he would say next.

'It is, at all events, satisfactory to know,' said he, lying back in his chair again, 'that there is nothing between you--outside, I mean, the friends.h.i.+p which the very peculiar circ.u.mstances under which you met would naturally excite.' He lay silent awhile, smiling. 'May I take it,'

said he, 'that she has been left penniless?'

'I fear it is so,' I replied.

He meditated afresh.

'Do you think,' said he, 'you could induce her to accompany you in my s.h.i.+p to the Cape?'

'No!' cried I, starting, 'I could not induce her, indeed, and for a very good reason: I could not induce myself.'

'But why?' he exclaimed in his oiliest tone. 'Why decline to see the great world, the wonders of this n.o.ble fabric of universe, when the opportunity comes to you? You shall be my guests; in short, Mr.

Tregarthen, the round voyage shan't cost you a penny!'

'You are very good!' I exclaimed, 'but I have left my mother alone at home. I am her only child, and she is a widow, and my desire is to return quickly, that she may be spared unnecessary anxiety and grief.'

'A very proper and natural sentiment, pleasingly expressed,' said he; 'yet I do not quite gather how your desire to return to your mother concerns Helga--I should say, Miss Nielsen!'

I believe he would have paused at 'Helga,' and not have added 'Miss Nielsen,' but for the look he saw in my face. Yet, stirred as my temper was by this half-hearted stroke of impertinent familiarity in the man, I took care that there should be no further betrayal of my feelings than what might be visible in my looks.

'Miss Nielsen wishes to return with me to my mother's house,' said I quietly; 'you were good enough to a.s.sure us that there should be no delay.'

'You only arrived yesterday!' he exclaimed, 'and down to this moment we have sighted nothing. But why do you suppose,' added he, 'that Miss Nielsen is not to be tempted into making the round voyage with me in this barque?'

'She must speak for herself,' said I, still perfectly cool, and no longer in doubt as to how the land lay with this gentleman.

'You have no claim upon her, Mr. Tregarthen?' said he, with one of his blandest smiles.

'No claim whatever,' said I, 'outside the obligation imposed upon me by her dying father. I am her protector by his request, until I land her safely among her friends in Denmark.'

'Just so,' said he; 'but it might happen--it might just possibly happen,' he continued, letting his head fall on one side and stroking his whiskers, 'that circ.u.mstances may arise to render her return to Denmark under your protection unnecessary.'

I looked at him, feigning not to understand.

'Now, Mr. Tregarthen, see here,' said he, and his blandness yielded for an instant to the habitual professional peremptoriness of the s.h.i.+pmaster; 'I am extremely desirous of making Miss Nielsen's better acquaintance, and I am also much in earnest in wis.h.i.+ng that she should get to know my character very well. This cannot be done in a few hours, nor, indeed, in a few days. You will immensely oblige me by coaxing the young lady to remain in this vessel. There is nothing between you....

Just so. She is an orphan, and there is reason to fear, from what you tell me, comparatively speaking, friendless. We must all of us desire the prosperity of so sweet and amiable a female. It may happen,' he exclaimed, with a singularly deep smile, 'that before many days have pa.s.sed, she will consent to bid you farewell and to continue the voyage alone with me.'

I opened my eyes at him, but said nothing.

'A few days more or less of absence from your home,' he continued, 'cannot greatly signify to you. We have a right to hope, seeing how virtuously, honourably, and heroically you have behaved, that Providence is taking that care of your dear mother which, let us not doubt, you punctually, morning and night, offer up your prayers for. But a few days may make a vast difference in Miss Nielsen's future; and, having regard to the solemn obligation her dying father imposed upon you, it should be a point of duty with you, Mr. Tregarthen, to advance her interests, however inconvenienced you may be by doing so.'

Happily, his long-windedness gave me leisure to think. I could have answered him hotly; I could have given him the truth very nakedly; I could have told him that his words were making me understand there was more in my heart for Helga than I had been at all conscious of twenty minutes before. But every instinct in me cried, Beware! to the troop of emotions hurrying through my mind, and I continued to eye him coolly and to speak with a well-simulated carelessness.

'I presume, Captain Bunting,' said I, 'that if Miss Nielsen persists in her wish to leave your s.h.i.+p you will not hinder her?'

'That will be the wish I desire to extinguish,' said he; 'I believe it may be done.'

'You will please remember,' said I, 'that Miss Nielsen is totally unequipped even for a week or two of travel by sea, let alone a round voyage that must run into months.'

'I understand you,' he answered, motioning with his hand; 'but the difficulty is easily met. The Canary Islands are not far off. Santa Cruz will supply all her requirements. My purse is wholly at her service. And with regard to yourself, Mr. Tregarthen, I should be happy to advance you any sum in moderation, to enable you to satisfy your few wants.'

'You are very good,' said I; 'but I am afraid we shall have to get you to trans.h.i.+p us at the first opportunity.'

A shadow of temper, that was not a frown, and therefore I do not know well how to convey it, penetrated his smile.

'You will think over it,' said he. 'Time does not press. Yet we shall not find another port so convenient as Santa Cruz.'

As he p.r.o.nounced these words Helga entered the cuddy. He instantly rose, bowing to her and smiling, but said no more than that he hoped shortly to join us on deck. He then entered his berth.

Helga approached me close, and studied my face for a moment or two in silence with her soft eyes.

'What is the matter, Hugh?' she asked.

I looked at her anxiously and earnestly, not knowing as yet how to answer her, whether to conceal or to tell her what had pa.s.sed. I was more astonished than irritated, and more worried and perplexed than either. Here was an entanglement that might vastly amuse an audience in a comedy, but that, in its reality, was about as grave and perilous a complication as could befall us. With the velocity of thought, even while the girl's eyes were resting on mine and she was awaiting my reply, I reflected--first, that we were in the power of this Captain, in respect, I mean, of his detention of us, while his vessel remained at sea; next, that he had fallen in love with Helga; that he meant to win her if he could; that his self-complacency would render him profoundly hopeful, and that he would go on keeping us on board his craft, under one pretext or another, in the conviction that his chance lay in time, with the further help that would come to him out of her condition as an orphan and penniless.

'What is it, Hugh?'

The sudden, brave, determined look that entered the girl's face, as though she had scented a danger, and had girded her spirit for it, determined me to give her the truth.