Doubts rushed over Betty, but she
remembered what the school-girl had said of the captive being sent
beyond seas; and at any rate, she must risk the expedition being
futile when such issues hung upon it. And if they failed to meet her
father, she felt that her presence might prevail when the undefined
rights of so mere a lad as her companion might be disregarded.
His soldier servant had secured a boat, and they rapidly descended
to the river; Sir Amyas silent between suspense, dismay and shame
for his mother, and Betty trying to keep Eugene quiet by hurried
answers to his eager questions about all he saw. They had to get
out at London Bridge, and take a fresh boat on the other side, a
much larger one, with two oarsmen, and a grizzled old coxswain, with
a pleasant honest countenance, who presently relieved Betty of all
necessity of attending to, or answering, Eugene's chatter.
"Do you know where this garden is?" said she, leaning across to Sir
Amyas, who had engaged the boat to go to Greenwich.
He started as if it were a new and sudden thought, and turning to the
steersman demanded whether he knew Mrs. Darke's garden.
The old man gave a kind of grunt, and eyed the trio interrogatively,
the young officer with his fresh, innocent, boyish face and brilliant
undisguised uniform, the handsome child, the lady neither young, gay,
nor beautiful, but unmistakeably a decorous gentlewoman.
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