my prayers, you know."

"What? Before undressing?" said Sergeant Archelaus.

CHAPTER IV

THE GUN IN THE GREAT FOG

Politely though he had contrived his departure, the Commandant left
Mrs. Fossell's whist-party to something like dismay. A passing
indisposition--no excuse could be more reasonable. Still, nothing of
the kind had ever interrupted these gatherings within Mrs. Fossell's
recollection, and she could not help taking a serious view of it.

"A passing indisposition," was Mr. Fossell's phrase, and he kept
repeating it--with an occasional "Nonsense, my dear"--in answer to his
wife's gloomy forebodings.

"But I shall send round, the first thing in the morning, to inquire,"
she insisted.

"Do so, my dear."

"It can't be serious, ma'am," Mr. Rogers assured her jollily. "You
heard him decline my arm when I offered to see him home."

"In my opinion," said Miss Gabriel, "the man is breaking up." She
touched her forehead lightly with the tip of her forefinger.

"Breaking up?" echoed her host and Mrs. Pope, incredulous. "My dear
Elizabeth!" began Mrs. Fossell.

"Breaking up," Miss Gabriel repeated with a very positive nod of her
head. "He has not been the same man since the Lord Proprietor took over
the presidency of the Court and he refused, upon pique, to be elected
an ordinary member. Say what you like, a man cannot be virtual Governor
of the Islands one day and the next a mere nobody without its preying
upon him."

"He made light of it at the time," observed Mr. Fossell, who (it goes
without saying) was councillor; "although I ventured to remonstrate
with him."

"And I," said Mr. Pope, who (it also goes without saying) was another.
"In the friendliest possible way you understand. I pointed out that the
Lord Proprietor was, after all, the Lord Proprietor, and, as such, did
not understand being thwarted. Very naturally, as you will all admit."

"It's human nature, when you come to think of it," put in the Steward's
wife (she preferred the title of Steward to that of agent, and was
gradually accustoming society to the sound, even as in earlier years,
when a young married woman, she had taught it to substitute "agent" for
"factor"). If, during the interval when her husband's dismissal seemed
inevitable, she had lost no opportunity of prophesying evil of the new
Lord Proprietor, she made up for it now by justifying his every action.

"If that's the ground you're going on," spoke up Mr. Rogers, who,