es from nowhere--you take that girl, I say, and then fetch along,
as next-door neighbor, a good-looking young shark like Allie, with a
hogshead of money and a blame sight too much experience, and that's a
risky proposition for the girl.

"Allie played his cards well; he'd set into a good many similar games
afore, I judge. He begun by doing little favors for Phoebe Ann--she was
the deef aunt I mentioned--and 'twa'n't long afore he was as solid
with the old lady as a kedge-anchor. He had a way of dropping into
the Saunders house for a drink of water or a slab of 'that delicious
apple-pie,' and with every drop he got better acquainted with Barbara.
Cap'n Eben was on a v'yage to Buenos Ayres and wouldn't be home till
fall, 'twa'n't likely.

"I didn't see a great deal of what was going on, being too busy with my
fishweirs and clamming to notice. Allie and me wa'n't exactly David and
Jonathan, owing, I judge, to our informal introduction to each other.
But I used to see him scooting 'round in his launch--twenty-five foot,
she was, with a little mahogany cabin and the land knows what--and
the servants at the big house told me yarns about his owning a big
steam-yacht, with a sailing-master and crew, which was cruising round
Newport somewheres.

"But, busy as I was, I see enough to make me worried. There was a good
deal of whispering over the Saunders back gate after supper, and once,
when I come up over the bluff from the shore sudden, they was sitting
together on a rock and he had his arm round her waist. I dropped a hint
to Phoebe Ann, but she shut me up quicker'n a snap-hinge match-box.
Allie had charmed 'auntie' all right. And so it drifted along till
September.

"One Monday evening about the middle of the month I went over to Phoebe
Ann's to borrow some matches. Barbara wasn't in--gone out to lock up
the hens, or some such fool excuse. But Phoebe was busting full of joy.
Cap'n Eben had arrived in New York a good deal sooner'n was expected and
would be home on Thursday morning.

"'He's going from Boston to Provincetown on the steamer, Wednesday,'
says Phoebe. 'He's got some business over there. Then he's coming home
from Provincetown on the early train. Ain't that splendid?'

"I thought 'twas splendid for more reasons than one, and I went out
feeling good. But as I come round the corner of the house there was
somebody by the back gate, and I heard a girl's voice sayin': 'Oh, no,
no! I can't! I can't!'

"If I hadn't