did not care to talk
on the subject. The captain thought her attitude a little odd, but
decided that the tragedy of her husband's death must be the cause
of her reticence. Her parting remarks on this occasion furnished
an explanation.

"If you please, Captain Hunniwell," she said, "I would rather you
did not tell any one about my having lived in Middleford and my
affairs there. I have told very few people in Orham and I think on
the whole it is better not to. What is the use of having one's
personal history discussed by strangers?"

She was evidently a trifle embarrassed and confused as she said
this, for she blushed just a little. Captain Sam decided that the
blush was becoming. Also, as he walked back to the bank, he
reflected that Jed Winslow's tenant was likely to have her personal
history and affairs discussed whether she wished it or not. Young
women as attractive as she were bound to be discussed, especially
in a community the size of Orham. And, besides, whoever else she
may have told, she certainly had told him that Middleford had
formerly been her home and he had told Maud and Jed. Of course
they would say nothing if he asked them, but perhaps they had told
it already. And why should Mrs. Armstrong care, anyway?

"Let folks talk," he said that evening, in conversation with his
daughter. "Let 'em talk, that's my motto. When they're lyin'
about me I know they ain't lyin' about anybody else, that's some
comfort. But women folks, I cal'late, feel different."

Maud was interested and a little suspicious.

"You don't suppose, Pa," she said, "that this Mrs. Armstrong has a
past, do you?"

"A past? What kind of a thing is a past, for thunder sakes?"

"Why, I mean a--a--well, has she done something she doesn't want
other people to know; is she trying to hide something, like--well,
as people do in stories?"

"Eh? Oh, in the books! I see. Well, young woman, I cal'late the
first thing for your dad to do is to find out what sort of books
you read. A past! Ho, ho! I guess likely Mrs. Armstrong is a
plaguey sight more worried about the future than she is about the
past. She has lived the past already, but she's got to live the
future and pay the bills belongin' to it, and that's no triflin'
job in futures like these days."

Needless to say Jed Winslow did no speculating concerning his
tenant's "past." Having settled the question of that tenancy
definitely and, as he figured it, forever, he