e streaming through the
window indicated that the conditions outside were also just what they
should be.

"Well," he replied, with a smile, "I don't know, Caroline, as I've made
any definite plans. Let's see, to-day's Sunday, ain't it? Last letter I
got from Abbie she sailed into me because, as she said, I seemed to
have been 'most everywheres except to meetin'. She figgers New York's a
heathen place, anyhow, and she cal'lates I'm gettin' to be a backslider
like the rest. I didn't know but I might go to church."

Caroline nodded. "I wondered if you wouldn't like to go," she said. "I
am going, and I thought perhaps you would go with me."

Her uncle had again raised his cup to his lips. Now he set it down with
a suddenness which caused the statuesque Edwards to bend forward in
anticipation of a smash. The captain started to speak, thought better of
it, and stared at his niece so intently that she colored and dropped her
eyes.

"I know," she faltered, "that I haven't asked you before, but--but--"
then, with the impulsiveness which was one of her characteristics, and
to her guardian her great charm, she looked him full in the face and
added, "but I hoped you would understand that--that _I_ understood a
little better. I should like to have your company very much."

Captain Elisha drew a long breath.

"Thank you, Caroline," he answered. "I appreciate your askin' me, I
sartinly do. And I'd rather go with you than anybody else on earth.
But I was cal'latin' to hunt up some little round-the-corner chapel, or
Bethel, where I'd feel a little bit at home. I guess likely your church
is a pretty big one, ain't it?"

"We attend Saint Denis. It IS a large church, but we have always been
connected with it. Stephen and I were christened there. But, of course,
if you had rather go somewhere else--"

"No, no! I hadn't anywhere in particular to go. I'm a Congregationalist
to home, but Abbie says I've spread my creed so wide that it ain't
more'n an inch deep anywhere, and she shouldn't think 'twould keep me
afloat. I tell her I'd rather navigate a broad and shallow channel,
where everybody stands by to keep his neighbor off the shoals, than I
would a narrow and crooked one with self-righteousness off both beams
and perdition underneath.

"You see," he added, reflectively, "the way I look at it, it's a pretty
uncertain cruise at the best. Course there's all sorts of charts, and
every fleet is sartin it's got the only right one. But