you answer them as they deserved?"

"Oh, I don't know. What's the use? They've got troubles of their own.
One of 'em's a used-to-be, and the other's a never-was. Either disease
is bad enough without addin' complications."

Pearson laughed. "I don't get the whole of that, Captain," he said.
"Mrs. Van is the used-to-be, I suppose. But what is it that Miss
Sherborne never was?"

"Married," was the prompt reply. "Old maiditis is creepin' on her fast.
You want to be careful, Jim; a certain kind of female gets desperate
about her stage."

Pearson laughed again.

"Oh, get out!" he exclaimed, turning to go.

"All right! I will, when you and she are together and you give me the
signal. But I tell you honest, I'd hate to do it. Judgin' by the way she
smiles and looks up under her eye-winkers at you, you're in danger
of kidnappin'. So long. I'll see you again after I get my dunnage
unpacked."

The snubbing and sneering came to an abrupt end. Pearson, in
conversation with Mrs. Ruggles, casually imparted the information that
Captain Elisha was the brother of A. Rodgers Warren, late society leader
and wealthy broker. Also, that he had entire charge of the latter's
estate. Thereafter Mrs. Ruggles treated the captain as one whose rank
was equal to her own, and, consequently, higher than anyone's else
in the boarding-house. She made it a point to publicly ask his advice
concerning "securities" and "investments," and favored him with many
reminiscences of her distinguished father, the Senator. Miss Sherborne,
as usual, followed her lead. Captain Elisha, when Pearson joked him on
the altered behavior of the two ladies, merely grinned.

"You may thank me for that, Captain," said the young man. "When I told
Mrs. Ruggles who and what you were she almost broke down and sobbed.
The fact that she had risked offending one so closely connected with the
real thing on Fifth Avenue and Wall Street was too dreadful. But she's
yours devotedly now. There's an 18-karat crown on your head."

"Yup. I suppose so. Well, I ain't so sot up with pride over wearin'
that crown. It used to belong to 'Bije, and I never did care much for
second-hand things. Rather have a new sou'wester of my own, any day in
the week. When I buy a sou'wester I know what it's made of."

"Mrs. Ruggles knows what the crown is made of--gold, nicely padded with
bonds and preferred stock."

"Humph! Sometimes I wonder if the paddin's waterproof. As for the
gold--well, you can