The Yacht Club Part 24

"Don John gave it to me, not half an hour ago."

"It has been torn into quarters some time, and the pieces put together again. Did Don John mend the bill himself?"

"No, sir; he says the bill is just as it was when he received it. I looked at it pretty sharp when I took it; but he said if it wasn't good, he would give me another."

"It is perfectly good. Did he tell you where he got the bill?" asked Captain Patterdale, manifesting none of the emotion which agitated him.

"No, sir; he did not. I didn't ask him. If it makes any difference, I will do so."

"It makes no difference whatever. It is all right, Mr. Leach."

The sail-maker folded up his receipt, and left the library. He went home with eighty dollars in his pocket, entirely satisfied with himself, with the nabob, and especially with the firm of Ramsay & Son. He did not care a straw about the white cross of Denmark, so long as the bill was good.

Captain Patterdale was deeply interested in the bill which bore this mark, and possibly he expected to conquer by this sign. He was not so much interested in the bill because he had made a voyage up the Baltic and seen the white cross there, as because he had seen it on a bill in that tin box. He was not only interested, but he was anxious, for the active member of the firm of Ramsay & Son seemed to be implicated in a very unfortunate and criminal transaction.

More than once Captain Patterdale had observed the pleasant relations between Don John and his fair daughter. As Nellie was a very pretty girl, intelligent, well educated, and agreeable, and in due time would be the heiress of a quarter or a half million, as the case might be, he was rather particular in regard to the friends.h.i.+ps she contracted with the young gentlemen of the city. Possibly he did not approve the intimacy between them. But whatever opinions he may have entertained in regard to the equality of social relations between his daughter and the future partner of her joys and sorrows, we must do him the justice to say that he preferred honor and honesty to wealth and position in the gentleman whom Nellie might choose for her life companion. The suspicion, or rather the conviction, forced upon him by "the white cross of Denmark," that Donald was neither honest nor honorable, was vastly more painful than the fact that he was poor, and was the son of a mere s.h.i.+p carpenter.

Certainly Nellie did like the young man, though, as she was hardly more than a child, it might be a fancy that would pa.s.s away when she realized the difference between the daughter of a nabob and the son of a s.h.i.+p carpenter. While he was thinking of the subject, Nellie entered the library, as she generally did when her father was alone there. She was his only confidant in the house in the matter of the tin box, and he determined to talk with her about the painful discovery he had just made.

CHAPTER XII.

DONALD ANSWERS QUESTIONS.

"Well, Nellie, did you have a good time to-day?" asked Captain Patterdale, as his daughter seated herself near his desk.

"I did; a capital time. Everybody seemed to enjoy it," replied she.

"But some seemed to enjoy it more than others," added the captain, with a smile.

"Now, father, you have something to say," said she, with a blush. "I wish you would say it right out, and not torment me for half an hour, trying to guess what it is."

"Of course, if I hadn't anything to say, I should hold my tongue,"

laughed her father.

"Everybody don't."

"But I do."

"Do you think I enjoyed the occasion more than any one else, father?"

"I thought you were one of the few who enjoyed it most."

"Perhaps I was; but what have I done?"

"Done?"

"What terrible sin have I committed now?"

"None, my child."

"But you are going to tell me that I have sinned against the letter of the law of propriety, or something of that kind. This is the way you always begin."

"Then this time is an exception to all other times, for I haven't a word of fault to find with you."

"I am so glad! I was trying to think what wicked thing I had been doing."

"Nothing, child. Don John seemed to be supremely happy this afternoon."

"I dare say he was; but the firm of Ramsay & Son had a successful launch, and Don John had compliments enough to turn the head of any one with a particle of vanity in his composition."

"No doubt of it; and I suppose you were not behind the others in adding fuel to the flame."

"What flame, father?"

"The flame of vanity."

"On the contrary, I don't think I uttered a single compliment to him."

"It was hardly necessary to utter it; but if you had danced with him only half as often, it would have flattered his vanity less."

"How could I help it, when he asked me? There were more gentlemen than ladies present, and I did not like to break up the sets," protested Nellie.

"Of course not; but being the lion of the occasion, don't you think he might have divided himself up a little more equitably?"

"I don't know; but I couldn't choose my own partner," replied Nellie, her cheeks glowing.

"You like Don John very well?"

"I certainly do, father," replied she, honestly. "Don't you?"

"Perhaps it don't make so much difference whether I like him or not."

"You have praised him to the skies, father. You said he was a very smart boy; and not one in a hundred young fellows takes hold of business with so much energy and good judgment. I am sure, if you had not said so much in his favor, I shouldn't have thought half so much of him," argued Nellie.

"I don't blame you for thinking well of him, my child," interposed her father. "I only hope you are not becoming too much interested in him."

"I only like him as a good-hearted, n.o.ble fellow," added Nellie, with a deeper blush than before, for she could not help understanding just what her father meant.

"He appears to be a very good-hearted fellow now; but he is young, and has not yet fully developed his character. He may yet turn out to be a worthless fellow, dissolute and dishonest," continued the captain.

"Don John!" exclaimed Nellie, utterly unwilling to accept such a supposition.

"Even Don John. I can recall more than one young man, who promised as well as he does, that turned out very badly; and men fully developed in character, sustaining the highest reputations in the community, have been detected in the grossest frauds. I trust Don John will realize the hopes of his friends; but we must not be too positive."

"I can't believe that Don John will ever become a bad man," protested Nellie.