Of course they had mourned
you as killed in the fight with the Armada. A year had passed, and
the wound must have somewhat healed. Had I told them that you had
escaped death at that time, had been months with me in Spain, and
had, on your way home, been either killed by the Moors or were a
prisoner in their galleys, it would have opened the wound afresh,
and caused them renewed pain and sorrow."
"No doubt you were right, Gerald, and that it was, as you say, the
kindest thing to leave them in ignorance of my fate."
Upon the next visit Sir Francis Vere paid to England, Geoffrey spoke
to him with regard to Gerald Burke's affairs. Sir Francis took the
matter up warmly, and his influence sufficed in a very short time
to obtain an order for the restoration to Gerald of all his estates.
Inez and Dolores became as fast friends as were their husbands; and
when the Burkes came to England Geoffrey's house was their home.
The meeting with Gerald was followed by a still greater surprise,
for not many days after, when Geoffrey was sitting with his wife
and Don Mendez under the shade of a broad cypress in the garden of
the merchant's house at Chelsea, they saw a servant coming across
towards them, followed by a man in seafaring attire.
"Here is a person who would speak to you, Master Vickars," the
servant said. "I told him it was not your custom to see any here,
and that if he had aught to say he should call at your house in St.
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