Aboard this ship you shall be treated with
all honour. So soon as we are in case to put to sea again, we
steer a course for Tortuga to take you home to your father. And
pray do not consider that I have bought you, as your brother has
just said. All that I have done has been to provide the ransom
necessary to bribe a gang of scoundrels to depart from obedience
to the arch-scoundrel who commanded them, and so deliver you from
all peril. Count it, if you please, a friendly loan to be repaid
entirely at your convenience."
Mademoiselle stared at him in unbelief. M. d'Ogeron rose to his feet.
"Monsieur, is it possible that you are serious?"
"I am. It may not happen often nowadays. I may be a pirate. But
my ways are not the ways of Levasseur, who should have stayed in
Europe, and practised purse-cutting. I have a sort of honour
- shall we say, some rags of honour? - remaining me from better
days." Then on a brisker note he added: "We dine in an hour, and
I trust that you will honour my table with your company. Meanwhile,
Benjamin will see, monsieur, that you are more suitably provided
in the matter of wardrobe.
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