w it began to trouble his bones like the
gout. "Getting old ... getting old," he thought to himself; he went to
the "Elephant" to refresh his forces, to dull his longing, to drown his
discomfort--and yet he did not succeed. An unconquerable restlessness
drove him hither and thither. Ten times in the day he marched with
majestic steps through the little town, and could have wished it were
ten times as big. At last he summoned up courage to pay a visit to the
object of his adoration with due formality, but was scornfully repulsed
by the lady herself. "Did he think she received visits from gentlemen?"
That took him woefully aback. "When she's got the house full of men
boarders!" he said to himself.

His astonishment was so plainly to be read in the old soldier's face
that the pretty; little, woman quite understood it, and said to him in
a friendly tone: "My dear Captain, people understand that a poor widow
has to make a living; but if I were to let any one that chose come and
visit me, I should soon be nicely talked about. So you mustn't mind,
Captain." As she said this, she looked very charming, her face tinted
by a sweet blush, for as a matter of fact she was not very much pleased
to have her admirer standing in front of her door, in the tiny garden,
for all the world to see. "But," she said, looking down modestly, "it
might be all right for me to take a little walk some day and pay a
visit to your daughter ..."

"To Tubby!" he laughed, surprised. "On a Sunday, then, when Tubby's at
home," he said slyly, and made such a bow as he had had no occasion to
make, in years. Her prudent behavior proved to him that she looked upon
him without disfavor, and he was thus in an excellent temper.

That evening Tubby had a good deal of trouble with her father. He got
out of the trap with decidedly unsteady steps. Up to that time he had
always marched in a very stately manner through the courtyard,
unnaturally straight, his moustache standing out stiffly, his hand
behind him, like a man who is ready to face anybody's eyes with a
"Well, look at me!"

The trouble had always begun after he got into the house; then he had
collapsed and given poor Tubby a lot of trouble and distress; he had
scolded her crossly and even struck her, and then passed to extravagant
praises, staring at her with glassy eyes, until the poor child was
terribly frightened.

But this evening he was queerer than ever before. He sat in his
armchair, and seemed to