s prying gossip with positive rudeness, and he had been somewhat
amused by it, although he had always believed that young people should
be respectful to their elders. He did not care to talk about Olive with
Miss Port, but he had to say something, and so he asked if she seemed to
be having a good time.

"If settin' behind bushes with young men, and goggle-eyed ones at that,
is havin' a good time," replied Miss Port, "I'm sure she's enjoyin'
herself." And then, as she caught sight of Lancaster: "I suppose that's
the young man who's visitin' you. I hope he makes his scholars study
harder than he does. He isn't readin' his book at all; he's just starin'
at nothin'. You might be polite enough to bring him out and introduce
him, captain," she added in a somewhat milder tone.

The captain did not answer; in fact, he had not heard all that Miss Port
had said to him. If Olive had refused to send him a word, even the
slightest message, she must be a girl of very stubborn resentments, and
he was sorry to hear it. He himself was beginning to get over his
resentment at her treatment of him at the Broadstone luncheon, and if
she had been of his turn of mind everything might have been smoothed
over in a very short time.

"Well?" remarked Maria in an inquiring tone.

"Excuse me," said the captain, "what were you saying?"

Miss Maria settled herself in her seat. "If you and that young man
wastin' his time in the garden can't keep your wits from
wool-gatherin'," said she, "I hope old Jane has got sense enough to go
on with the housekeepin'. I'll call again when you've sent your young
man away, and got your young woman back."

Maria said little to the taciturn butcher on their way to Glenford, but
she smiled a good deal to herself. For years it had been the desire of
her life to go to live in the toll-gate--not with any idea of ousting
Captain Asher--oh, no, by no means. Old Mr. Port could not live much
longer, and his daughter would not care to reside in the Glenford house
by herself. But the toll-gate would exactly suit her; there was life;
there was passing to and fro; there was money enough for good living and
good clothes without any encroachment on whatever her father might leave
her; and, above all, there was the captain, good for twenty years yet,
in spite of his want of appetite, which she had mentioned to his niece.
This would be a settlement which would suit her in every way, but so
long as that niece lived there, there