e
mirth, "here's some young folks come out to see the place an' I want
you to know 'em. Mr. Rivers, this is m' wife, Kitty, and--lessee,
miss, I don't rightly remember your name."

"Bessemer!" exclaimed Condy and Blix in a breath.

"Oh!" exclaimed K. D. B., "you were in the restaurant the night that
the Captain and I--I--that is--yes, I'm quite sure I've seen you
before." She turned from one to the other, beginning to blush furiously.

"Yes, yes, in Luna's restaurant, wasn't it?" said Condy desperately.
"It seems to me I do just barely remember."

"And wasn't the Captain there?" Blix ventured.

"I forgot my stick, I remember," continued Condy. "I came back for it;
and just as I was going out it seems to me I saw you two at a table
near the door."

He thought it best to allow their "matrimonial objects" to believe he
had not seen them before.

"Yes, yes, we were there," answered K. D. B. tactfully. "We dine there
almost every Monday night."

Blix guessed that K. D. B. would prefer to have the real facts of the
situation ignored, and determined she should have the chance to change
the conversation if she wished.

"What a delicious supper one has there!" she said.

"Can't say I like Mexican cooking myself," answered K. D. B.,
forgetting that they dined there every Monday night. "Plain United
States is good enough for me."

Suddenly Captain Jack turned abruptly to Condy, exclaiming: "Oh, you
was the chap that called the picture of that schooner a barkentine."

"Yes; WASN'T that a barkentine?" he answered innocently.

"Barkentine your EYE!" spluttered the Captain. "Why, that was a
schooner as plain as a pie plate."

But ten minutes later the ordeal was over, and Blix and Condy, once
more breathing easily, were on their walk again. The Captain and K. D.
B. had even accompanied them to the gate of the station, and had
strenuously urged them to "come in and see them again the next time
they were out that way."

"Married!" murmured Condy, putting both hands to his head. "We've done
it, we've done it now."

"Well, what of it?" declared Blix, a little defiantly. "I think it's
all right. You can see the Captain is in love with her, and she with
him. No, we've nothing to reproach ourselves with."

"But--but--but so sudden!" whispered Condy, all aghast. "That's what
makes me faint--the suddenness of it."

"It shows how much they are in love, how--how readily they--adapted
themselves to each other.