ust have forced it on him. I'm sure he didn't know how you got it."

"Yes, he did," said the other. "In fact, it was intended for his room at
first. He was quite pleased with it."

"Why did he alter his mind, then?" inquired the girl.

Mr. Tredgold looked suddenly at the opposite wall, but his lips quivered
and his eyes watered. Miss Drewitt, reading these signs aright, was
justly incensed.

"I don't believe it," she cried.

"He said that you didn't know and he did," said Mr. Tredgold,
apologetically. "I talk too much. I'd no business to let out about old
Brown, but I forgot for the moment--sailors are always prone to childish
superstitions."

"Are you talking about my uncle?" inquired Miss Drewitt, with ominous
calm.

"They were his own words," said the other.

Miss Drewitt, feeling herself baffled, sat for some time wondering how to
find fault politely with the young man before her. Her mind was full of
subject-matter, but the politeness easily eluded her. She threw out
after a time the suggestion that his presence at the bedside of sick
people was not likely to add to their comfort.

Captain Bowers entered before the aggrieved Mr. Tredgold could think of a
fitting reply, and after a hasty greeting insisted upon his staying for a
cup of tea. By a glance in the visitor's direction and a faint smile
Miss Drewitt was understood to endorse the invitation.

The captain's satisfaction at finding them together was complete, but a
little misunderstanding was caused all round, when Mr. Tasker came in
with the tea, by the series of nods and blinks by which the captain
strove to call his niece's attention to various facial and other
differences between his servant and their visitor. Mr. Tredgold, after
standing it for some time, created a little consternation by inquiring
whether he had got a smut on his nose.

The captain was practically the only talker at tea, but the presence of
two attentive listeners prevented him from discovering the fact. He
described his afternoon's ramble at such length that it was getting late
by the time they had finished.

"Stay and smoke a pipe," he said, as he sought his accustomed chair.

Mr. Tredgold assented in the usual manner by saying that he ought to be
going, and instead of one pipe smoked three or four. The light failed
and the lamp was lit, but he still stayed on until the sound of subdued
but argumentative voices beyond the drawn blind apprised them of other
v