wife is gone!"

For the moment he totally forgot that his dear wife had merely gone to
the edge of the bluff with the captain and Olive to look at the river.

That evening, as they sat together, Lieutenant Asher told his brother
all that Mrs. Easterfield had confided to him about Dick Lancaster. The
captain was delighted.

"That is what I have wanted," he said, "almost from the beginning, and I
want it more than ever now. I am getting to be an old fellow, and I want
to see her settled before I sail."

"You know, John," said the lieutenant, "that I find Olive is a little
more of a girl of her own mind than she used to be. I don't believe she
would rest quietly under the housekeeping of a girl so nearly her own
age."

The captain gave some vigorous puffs. "I should think not!" he said to
himself. "Olive would have that young woman swabbing the decks before
they had been out three days! You are right," said he aloud, "but we
must all look out that Olive does not hear anything about this."

It was not until they were continuing their bridal trip that Lieutenant
Asher considered the subject of mentioning Dick Lancaster to his wife.
Then, after considering it, he concluded not to do it. In the first
place, he knew that he was getting to be a little bit elderly, and he
did not care about discussing the perfections of the young man who had
been selected as a suitable partner for his wife's school friend. This
was all very foolish, of course, but people often are very foolish.

Thus it was that Olive Asher never heard of the tripartite alliance
between her father, her uncle, and her good friend at Broadstone.

When Captain Asher learned, a few days after his brother had left, that
the Broadstone family had gone to the seashore, he sat reflectively and
asked himself if he were doing the right thing by Olive. The season was
well advanced; it was getting very hot at the toll-gate, and at many
other gates in that region; and this navy girl ought to have a breath of
fresh air. It is wonderful that he had not thought of it before!

At breakfast the next morning Olive stopped pouring coffee when he told
her his plans to go to the sea.

"With you, Uncle John!" she cried. "That would be better than anything
in the world! You sail a boat?" she asked inquiringly.

"Sail a boat!" roared the captain. "I have a great mind to kick over
this table! My dear, I can sail a boat, keel uppermost, if the water's
deep enough! Sail a boat!"