ropose. Was it twelve or thirteen times you
proposed to me, Pepper?"

"I forget," said the ex-pilot shortly.

"But I never loved him," she continued. "I never loved you a bit, did I,
Pepper?"

"Not a bit," said Pepper warmly. "No man could ever have a harder or
more unfeeling wife than you was. I'll say that for you, willing."

As he bore this testimony to his wife's fidelity there was a knock at
the door, and, upon his opening it, the rector's daughter, a lady of
uncertain age, entered, and stood regarding with amazement the frantic
but ineffectual struggles of Captain Crippen to release himself from a
position as uncomfortable as it was ridiculous.

"Mrs. Pepper!" said the lady, aghast. "Oh, Mrs. Pepper!"

"It's all right, Miss Winthrop," said the lady addressed, calmly, as she
forced the captain's flushed face on to her ample shoulder again; "it's
my first husband, Jem Budd."

"Good gracious!" said Miss Winthrop, starting. "Enoch Arden in the
flesh!"

"Who?" inquired Pepper, with a show of polite interest.

"Enoch Arden," said Miss Winthrop. "One of our great poets wrote a noble
poem about a sailor who came home and found that his wife had married
again; but, in the POEM, the first husband went away without making
himself known, and died of a broken heart."

She looked at Captain Crippen as though he hadn't quite come up to her
expectations.

"And now," said Pepper, speaking with great cheerfulness, "it's me
that's got to have the broken heart. Well, well."

"It's a most interesting case," cried Miss Winthrop; "and, if you wait
till I fetch my camera, I'll take your portrait together just as you
are."

"Do," said Mrs. Pepper cordially.

"I won't have my portrait took," said the captain, with much acerbity.

"Not if I wish it, dear?" inquired Mrs. Pepper tenderly.

"Not if you keep a-wishing it all your life," replied the captain
sourly, making another attempt to get his head from her shoulder.

"Don't you think they ought to have their portrait taken now?" asked
Miss Winthrop, turning to the ex-pilot.

"I don't see no 'arm in it," said Pepper thoughtlessly.

"You hear what Mr. Pepper says," said the lady, turning to the captain
again. "Surely if he doesn't mind, you ought not to."

"I'll talk to him by-and-bye," said the captain, very grimly.

"P'raps it would be better if we kept this affair to ourselves for the
present," said the ex-pilot, taking alarm at his friend's manner.

"Well, I w