't
you, John?"

"Yes--yes, I see why you wrote me; but--but I can't see why she didn't.
She hasn't written me a word of all this."

And then the captain, in his anxiety to explain, made another indiscreet
remark.

"Well," he observed, "I suppose likely she was afraid you might
think that, now she had money--more money than she ever had before, I
mean--and was in a different, a higher-toned crowd than she had ever
been, that--that--well, that she was likin' that crowd better than the
old one. She might have thought that, you know, mightn't she?"

Mr. Doane did not answer. Daniel had made a pretty thorough mess of it.

"Of course," went on the captain, "as far as Cousin Percy is
concerned--"

John stirred uneasily. "Cousin Percy be hanged!" he snapped. "That's
enough of this foolishness. Let's change the subject. How is Nate Bangs
getting on with the store at home?"

The Metropolitan Store at Trumet was the one thoroughly satisfactory
spot on the checkered map of Daniel Dott's existence at the present
time. Nathaniel Bangs was making a success of that store. He reported
each week and the reports showed increasing business and a profit, small
as yet, but a profit nevertheless.

So the captain was only too glad to speak of the store and did so. John
appeared to listen, but his answers and comments were absent-minded. He
accepted a fresh cigar, at his host's invitation, but he permitted it to
go out.

At half-past ten the doorbell rang. Daniel sprang to his feet.

"Here they are!" he declared. "Gertie come home early, just as she said
she would. That's 'cause she wanted to see you, John. Hi!" shouting
at Mr. Hapgood, who had long since given up the search for the missing
pocketbook and had been dozing upstairs, "Hi! you needn't mind. Go
aloft again! Go below! Go somewhere! We don't need you. I'll let 'em in,
myself."

The butler, looking surprised, obeyed orders and went--somewhere. The
captain flung open the door.

"Well!" he hailed. "Here you are! And pretty early for Chapter night,
too. We're waitin' for you, John and I. Shall I pay the cab man?"

Serena, the first to enter, answered.

"No," she said, "he is already paid."

"That so? Did you pay him, Serena? Thought that was my job usually.
I--" Then, in a tone go entirely different that John Doane, in the
drawing-room, noticed the change, he added, "Oh! oh! I, see."

"Come in," went on Serena. "Come right in, Cousin Percy."

She entered the drawing