said he with
affected carelessness. "I've tasted it afore."

"Well--if you _won't_--" 'Bias stretched out a slow arm, filled his
glass, and set down the decanter beside his own dessert plate.
"You'll find those apples pretty good," he went on, sipping the wine,
"though not up to the Cox's Orange Pippins or the Blenheim Oranges that
come along later." He smacked his lips. "You'd better try this port
wine. Maybe 'tis a different quality to what you tasted when here by
yourself."

"Thank 'ee," answered Cai. "I said 'after you.'"

"Oh?" 'Bias pushed the decanter. "You weren't very tactful just now,
were you?" he asked after a pause. "_Is_ it the same wine?"

"O' course it is. . . . _When_ wasn't I tactful?"

"Why, when you upped an' contradicted her like that." 'Bias started to
fill his pipe. "Women are--what's the word?--sensitive; 'specially at
their own table."

"I _didn'_ contradict her," maintained Cai. "Leastways--"

"There's no reason to lose your temper about it, is there? . . .
You gave me that impression, an' if you didn' give her the same, I'm
mistaken."

"I'm not losin' my temper."

"No? . . . Well, whatever you did, 'tis done, an' no use to fret.
Only I want you and Mrs Bosenna to be friends--she bein' our landlady,
so to speak."

"Thank 'ee," said Cai again, holding a match to his pipe with an
agitated hand. "If you remember, I ought to know it, havin' had all the
early dealin's with her."

"She's very well disposed to you, too," said 'Bias. "Nothing could have
been kinder than the way she spoke when I mentioned this School-Board
business: nothing. We'd be glad, both of us, to see you fixed up in
that job."

"I wonder you didn't think of takin' it on yourself."

"I did," confessed 'Bias imperturbably.

"_You?_ . . . Well, what next?"

"I thought of it. . . . Only for a moment, though. First place, I didn'
want to stand in your way; an' next, as you was sayin' just now, 'tis a
ticklish matter when a man starts 'pon a business he knows nothing
about. But you'll soon pick it up, bein' able to give your whole time
to it."

"That might apply to you."

To this 'Bias made no reply. He smoked on, pressing down the tobacco in
the bowl of his pipe. The two friends sat in a constrained silence, now
and again pushing the wine politely.

"When you are ready?" suggested 'Bias at length--as Cai helped himself
to a final half-glassful, measuring it out with exactitude and leaving
as