he other way?"

"The other way is to keep on those you're wearing and take the
consequences."

"What consequences?"

"Jamaica ginger, hot water bottles and an afternoon's roast in front of
the sitting-room fire. Hephzibah went out sailing with me last October
and caught cold. That was enough; no one else shall have the experience
if she can help it."

"But--but good heavens! Kent, do you mean to say you always have to
change when you come in from sailing?"

"Except in summer, yes."

"But why?"

"Because Hephzy tells me to."

"Do you always do what she tells you?"

"Generally. It's the easiest way, as I said before."

"Good--heavens! And she darns your socks and tells you what--er lingerie
to wear and--does she wash your face and wipe your nose and scrub behind
your ears?"

"Not exactly, but she probably would if I didn't do it."

"Well, I'll be hanged! And she extends the same treatment to all your
guests?"

"I don't have any guests but you. No doubt she would if I did. She
mothers every stray cat and sick chicken in the neighborhood. There,
Jim, you trot along and do as you're told like a nice little boy. I'll
join you in the sitting-room."

"Humph! perhaps I'd better. I may be spanked and put to bed if I don't.
Well, well! and you are the author of 'The Black Brig!' 'Buccaneers and
Blood!' 'Bibs and Butterscotch' it should be! Don't stand out here in
the cold hall, Hosy darling; you may get the croup if you do."

I was waiting in the sitting-room when he came down. There was a roaring
fire in the big, old-fashioned fireplace. That fireplace had been
bricked up in the days when people used those abominations, stoves. As a
boy I was well acquainted with the old "gas burner" with the iron urn
on top and the nickeled ornaments and handles which Mother polished so
assiduously. But the gas burner had long since gone to the junk dealer.
Among the improvements which my first royalty checks made possible were
steam heat and the restoration of the fireplace.

Jim found me sitting before the fire in one of the two big "wing" chairs
which I had purchased when Darius Barlay's household effects were sold
at auction. I should not have acquired them as cheaply if Captain Cyrus
Whittaker had been at home when the auction took place. Captain Cy loves
old-fashioned things as much as I do and, as he has often told me since,
he meant to land those chairs some day if he had to run his bank account
high and dry in cons