ly, Captain
Snow."

"No, 'twas to me. Come this mornin's mail."

"I see. My mistake. Well, I'm obliged to her in a way. If the news has
been broken to you, I shan't have to break it and we can get down to
brass tacks just so much sooner. The surprise being over--I take it, it
WAS a surprise, Captain?"

"You take it right. Just as much of a surprise to me as you."

"Of course. Well, the surprise being over for both of us, we can talk of
the affair--calmly and coolly. What do you think about it, Captain?"

"Oh, I don't know as I know exactly what to think. What do YOU think
about it, Mr. Fosdick?"

"I think--I imagine I think very much as you do."

"I shouldn't be surprised. And--er--what's your notion of what I think?"

Captain Zelotes' gray eye twinkled as he asked the question, and the
Fosdick blue eye twinkled in return. Both men laughed.

"We aren't getting very far this way, Captain," observed the visitor.
"There's no use dodging, I suppose. I, for one, am not very well
pleased. Mrs. Fosdick, for another, isn't pleased at all; she is
absolutely and entirely opposed to the whole affair. She won't hear of
it, that's all, and she said so much that I thought perhaps I had better
come down here at once, see you, and--and the young fellow with the
queer name--"

"My grandson."

"Why yes. He is your grandson, isn't he? I beg your pardon."

"That's all right. I shan't fight with you because you don't like his
name. Go ahead. You decided to come and see him--and me--?"

"Yes, I did. I decided to come because it has been my experience that
a frank, straight talk is better, in cases like this, than a hundred
letters. And that the time to talk was now, before matters between the
young foo--the young people went any further. Don't you agree with me?"

Captain Zelotes nodded.

"That now is a good time to talk? Yes, I do," he said.

"Good! Then suppose we talk."

"All right."

There was another interval of silence. Then Fosdick broke it with a
chuckle. "And I'm the one to do the talking, eh?" he said.

Captain Lote's eye twinkled. "We-ll, you came all the way from New
York on purpose, you know," he observed. Then he added: "But there, Mr.
Fosdick, I don't want you to think I ain't polite or won't talk, myself.
I'll do my share when the time comes. But it does seem to me that you
ought to do yours first as it's your family so far that's done the
objectin'. . . . Your cigar's gone out. Have another light, won