d. He came back slowly, and, resuming his
seat, gazed in a meditative fashion at his friend.

"Talking about your loneliness--" he began.

"My loneliness?" repeated the captain, staring at "You were talking
about feeling lonely," Mr. Truett reminded him.

He proceeded with almost equal care to assist her mother

"So I was," said the captain. "So I was. You're quite right; but it's
all gone now. It's wonderful what a little whiskey will do."

"Wonderful what a lot will do," said Mr. Truefitt, with sudden asperity.
"You were talking about your loneliness, and I was advising you to get
married."

"So you were," said the captain, nodding at him. "Good-night."

He went off to bed with a suddenness that was almost disconcerting. Thus
deserted, Mr. Truefitt finished his whiskey and water and, his head full
of plans for the betterment of everybody connected with him, blew out
the lamp and went upstairs.

Owing possibly to his efforts in this direction Captain Trimblett and
Mrs. Chinnery scarcely saw him until Friday afternoon, when he drove
up in a fly, and, after handing out Miss Willett with great tenderness,
proceeded with almost equal care to assist her mother. The latter, a
fragile little old lady, was at once conducted to a chair and, having
been comfortably seated was introduced to Mrs. Chinnery.

[Illustration: Proceeded with almost equal care to assist her mother
074]

"It's a long way," she said, as her daughter divested her of her bonnet
and shawl, "but Cissie would insist on my coming, and I suppose, after
all, it's only right I should."

"Of course, mother," said Miss Willett, hurriedly.

"Right is right," continued the old lady, "after all is said and done.
And I'm sure Mr. Truefitt has been to ours often enough."

Mr. Truefitt coughed, and the captain--a loyal friend--assisted him.

"Night after night," said the old lady, during a brief interval.

Mr. Truefitt, still coughing slightly, began to place chairs at a table
on which, as the captain presently-proved to his own dissatisfaction,
there was not even; room for a pair of elbows. At the last moment the
seating arrangements had to be altered owing to a leg of the table which
got in the way of Mrs. Willett's. The captain, in his anxiety to be of
service, lowered a leaf of the table too far, and an avalanche of food
descended to the floor.

"It don't matter," said Mrs. Chinnery, in a voice that belied her words.
"Captain Trimblett is always doi