the result of his interview with Eben. He had told the old Come-Outer
what would happen to his ward if she persisted in her impudent and
audacious plot to entrap a Regular clergyman. She, being discovered, had
yielded, perforce, and had accepted Nat as the next best catch.

Annabel was not satisfied with this explanation. Of course, she said,
she did not pretend to believe Grace's statement that she had found her
uncle unconscious. No doubt the pair had had an interview and all that.
But she believed the minister himself had come to his senses and had
dismissed the brazen creature. She did not blame Mr. Ellery so much. He
was a young man, with a kind heart, and no doubt the "Van Horne
person" had worked upon his sympathies and had taken advantage of his
inexperience of feminine wiles.

"I think, pa," she said, "that it's our duty, yours and mine, to treat
him just as we always have. He doesn't know that we know, and we will
keep the secret. And, as Christians, we should forget and forgive. We'll
invite him here as we always have, keep him under our good influence,
and be very kind to him, poor innocent. As for Captain Hammond, I'm
sorry for him, knowing the kind of wife he is going to have, but no
doubt Come-Outers are not particular."

Kyan Pepper was another whom the news of the engagement surprised
greatly. When Lavinia told him of it, at the dinner table, he dropped
the knife he was holding and the greasy section of fish-ball balanced
upon it.

"'Bishy," said Miss Pepper, "what do you s'pose has happened down to the
Hammond tavern?"

"Oh, I know that," was the reply. "I heard that long ago; Cap'n Eben's
dead."

"'Course he's dead; and I knew you knew it. Land sakes! don't be such a
ninny. Why, I told you myself."

"Well, I didn't know but you'd forgot. Anybody's li'ble to forget who
they've told things to. Why, I've forgot more things--"

"Yes, there ain't no doubt about that. I've told you a million times,
if I have once, to tuck your napkin round your neck when you've got
your Sunday clothes on. And there you be this minute without a sign of a
napkin."

"Why, Laviny! I MUST have it round my neck. I know I--"

"Don't be so foolish! Think I'm blind? Can't I see you ain't got it? Now
where is it?"

Kyan began a futile hunt for the missing napkin, in his lap, on the
table, and finally under it.

"I don't understand," he stammered, "where that napkin can be. I'm just
as sure I had it and now I'm just