agazine is it?"

"I don't know. I never asked."

"Well, all right. I tell you, honestly, Dan, there's a feeling that he
is working you and the family for easy marks. You give him a good home
and plenty to eat and smoke and it's a pretty soft thing for him. As to
work--Humph!"

Daniel hesitated now. He had had faint but uneasy suspicions along this
very line, although these, like other suspicions and misgivings, he had
kept to himself. And Serena was such a firm believer in Cousin Percy;
at the least hint against that young gentleman she flew to arms. The
captain remembered this and his strong sense of loyalty to his wife
caused him to remonstrate. He shook his head.

"No, no," he said, "you're wrong there, Barney, sure you are. Why, Percy
has done a lot of writin' and such since he's been here. He goes to his
room 'most every afternoon to write, and he's helped Serena with her
Chapter papers and speeches more than you could imagine. As for Gertie's
trottin' around with him, that's just foolishness. She's gone to picture
shows and such when he asked her to, but that's only because she likes
such things and wanted company her own age. It's all foolishness, I
tell you. If anybody says 'tain't, you tell 'em I say they're lyin'. By
Godfreys! if they say it to me I'll--"

"There! there! Keep your hair on, I tell you."

"'Tis on, what there is left of it. But, Barney, what sort of talk have
you been givin' me? If Hungerford ain't all right, how is it that
he knows so many folks in this town? How is it that he's invited
everywhere, to all sorts of places, into everybody's houses?
Invitations! Why, he gets more'n we do, and," with a sigh, "land knows
that's enough, nowadays."

B. Phelps grunted contemptuously. "It is easy enough to get
invitations," he observed. "When you've been in this town as long as
I have you'll know that any young fellow, who is as good looking and
entertaining as he is, will be invited to all sorts of things. The girls
like him, so do their mothers--some of them. But there! I may be all
wrong. Anyhow, I mustn't stay with you any longer or Annette'll be
suspicious that you and I are knocking her dashed Chapter. I've told
you this for your own good. Gertrude's a bully girl; I always liked
her--wished a good many times I had a daughter like her. I should hate
to see her get in wrong like--well, like some people you and I know.
You keep her at home as much as you can. Good Lord, man!" with sudden
veh