“I don’t think that I have many superstitions, but I own to something like it in this case.”

Bertha looked earnestly at him.  Just before the gig returned from the shore, she and Frank were standing together.

“I am sorry that I shall not have your good wishes tomorrow,” he said.

“I have not said that anyone will have my good wishes,” she replied.  “I shall be on board the Phantom because I was invited there before you asked me, but my hope is that the best yacht will win.  I want to speak to you for a minute or two.  When can I see you?”

“I can come up tomorrow morning early,” he replied.  “What time will best suit you?”

“Ten o’clock; please ask for mamma.”

The next morning, Lady Greendale and Bertha came together into the sitting room into which Frank had been shown on calling at Lord Haverley’s.

“You are early, Frank.”

“Yes, Lady Greendale.  I am going for a run round the island.  It makes me fidgety to sit all day with nothing to do, and I am always contented when I am under sail.  As I shan’t have time to come in tomorrow morning, for you know we start at nine, I thought that I would drop in this morning, even if the hour was an early one.”

After chatting for a few minutes, Lady Greendale made some excuse to leave the room.

“She knew that you were coming, and that I wanted to speak to you,” said Bertha.

“Well, what is it—­anything of importance?” he asked with a smile.

She hesitated and then went on.

“Some words you spoke yesterday recalled to me something you said nearly four years ago.  Do you remember when we sat next to each other in the twilight, the day before you went to India?  We were talking about superstitions then, and you told me that you had only one, and said what it was—­you remember?”

“I remember,” he said, gravely.

“About someone who had beaten you always, and who you thought always would beat you, if you came in contact again.  You would not tell me his name.  Was it Mr. Carthew?”

“I would not answer the question then, Bertha, and you surely cannot expect me to answer it now.”

“I do expect you to answer it.”

“Then I must most emphatically decline to do so,” he said.  “What! do you think that if it were he, I would be so base as to discredit him now?  For you must remember that I said that only one of my defeats was due to foul play, that most of the others were simply due to the fact that he was a better man than I was.  The matter has long since been forgotten, and, whoever it is, I would not prejudice him in the opinion of anyone by raising up that old story.  I have no shadow of proof that it was he who damaged my boat.  It might have been the act of some boatman about the place who had laid his money against my winning.”