doubt there was a telepathic quality in it, for
she, too, started, looked up and was surprised and embarrassed.

"Why--why, oh, dear!" faltered Miss Snowden.

"Why! My soul and body!" exclaimed Mrs. Chase.

Captain Sears raised his hat. "Good mornin'," he said politely.

The ladies looked at each other. Then Miss Elvira, evidently the born
leader, inclined her head ever so little and said, "Good morning." Mrs.
Aurora looked up at her in order to see what she said.

Captain Sears tried again.

"It's a nice day for a walk," he observed.

Miss Elvira nodded and agreed, distantly--yet not too distant.

"I understand," said the captain, "that I gave you ladies a little bit
of a scare the other day. Understand you thought I was a tramp. I'm real
sorry. Of course I know I hadn't any business over on your premises,
but, as a matter of fact, I didn't exactly realize where I was. It was
the first cruise I'd made in these latitudes, as you might say, and I
didn't think about keepin' on my own side of the channel buoys. I beg
your pardon. I'll hope you'll excuse me."

Miss Snowden nodded elegantly and murmured that she understood.

"You are our new neighbor, I believe," she said.

"Why, yes'm, I suppose I am."

"Cap'n Kendrick, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"I hope, Cap'n Kendrick, that you won't think there was
any--ah--anything personal in our mistaking you for a tramp the other
day. Of course there wasn't. Oh, dear, no!"

The captain hesitated. He was wondering just what answer he was supposed
to make to this speech. Did the lady wish him to infer that it was the
Fair Harbor custom to consider all male strangers tramps until they were
proven innocent? Or--but Mrs. Chase saved him the trouble of reply.

"Elviry," she demanded, "what are you and him whisperin' about? Why
don't you talk so's a body can hear you? He's Cap'n Kendrick, ain't he?
Have you told him who we be, same as you said you was goin' to?"

Miss Snowden, after looking at the rotund Aurora as if she would like to
bite her, smiled instead and began a rather tangled explanation to the
effect that she and Mrs. Chase had felt that perhaps they had been
a--ah--they might have seemed "kind of hasty--you know, Cap'n Kendrick,
in what--in speaking as we did that time, and so--and so I told her if
we ever _did_ meet you--if we ever _should_, you know---- But
we haven't really met yet, have we? Shall we introduce ourselves? I
don't see why not; neighbors, you know.