doubt and irresolution in
every turn of his blue eyes and line of his weather-beaten face had
taken the place of the tolerant kindliness.

"It's a warm mornin', Mis' Pember," he observed, more disconcerted than
ever by her unsmiling alertness.

"You came a good ways to tell me that, Captain Phippeny."

"Yes, I did. Leastways I didn't," he responded. "I come to tell you
about--about Mellony."

"What about Mellony, Captain Phippeny?" she demanded, pale, but
uncompromising. "What have you got to tell me about Mellony Pember?" she
reiterated as he paused.

"Not Mellony Pember," gasped the captain, a three-cornered smile trying
to make headway against his embarrassment as he recalled the ancient
tale of breaking the news to the Widow Smith; "Mellony Baldwin."

"Mellony Baldwin!" repeated Mrs. Pember, stonily, not yet fully
comprehending.

The captain grew more and more nervous.

"Yes," he proceeded, with the haste of despair, "yes. Mis' Pember, you
see Mellony--Mellony's married."

"Mellony married!" Strangely enough she had not thought of that. She
grasped the doorpost for support.

"Yes, she up and married him," went on the captain more blithely. "I
hardly thought it of Mellony," he added in not unpleasurable reflection,
"nor yet of Ira."

"Nor I either." Mrs. Pember's lips moved with difficulty. Mellony
married! The structure reared with tears and prayers, the structure of
Mellony's happiness, seemed to crumble before her eyes.

"And I was to give you this;" and from the lining of his hat the
captain drew forth a folded paper.

"Then you knew about it?" said Mrs. Pember, in a flash of cold wrath.

"No, no, I didn't. My daughter's boy brought this to me, and I was to
tell you they was married. And why they set the job onto me the Lord he
only knows!" and Captain Phippeny wiped his heated forehead with
feeling; "but that's all _I_ know."

Slowly, her fingers trembling, she unfolded the note.

"I have married Ira, mother," she read. "He took me away in a boat early
this morning. It was the only way. I will come back when you want me. If
I am to be unhappy, I'd rather be unhappy this way. I can't be unhappy
your way any longer. I'm sorry to go against you, mother; but it's my
life, after all, not yours, MELLONY."

As Mrs. Pember's hands fell to her side and the note slipped from her
fingers, the daily tragedy of her married life seemed to pass before
her eyes. She saw Captain Pember reel into t